Parents give mixed reaction to getting children 5 and under vaccinated

WASHINGTON (TND) — The latest vaccination campaign is underway in the U.S. after federal regulators approved COVID-19 shots for children 5 and under last week.

Some parents enthusiastically welcomed the news and made appointments for their kids as quickly as possible, but many others are wary of having their children get vaccinated. Public health officials and President Joe Biden have marked the approval as a monumental step forward, though several hurdles remain in the way.

One of the biggest challenges is overcoming skepticism of the vaccine’s effectiveness and the necessity for young children to have it. The rollout of vaccines for all ages has been met with a mixed response as some question the science behind them and their long-term safety despite repeated testing and rigorous reviews from federal regulators.

“One of the biggest things that is giving parents anxiety with this vaccine is lack of confidence in the vaccine itself, coupled with complacency about the effects of COVID in this age-range,” said Dr. Amber Reinhart, associate professor of communication at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. “Previous studies have shown that most people don’t fully understand the science behind COVID vaccines, so they have lingering worries and doubts about whether the vaccine can have long-term effects for their children and its overall safety.”

The COVID-specific vaccines were developed at a rapid pace compared to some other vaccines in the past, but that hasn’t meant a lack of safety standards being met by pharmaceutical companies and regulators at the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Pharmaceutical companies also had decades of research and evidence to fall back on when creating an mRNA vaccine for COVID-19, in addition to the full weight of the federal government’s support to create a treatment.

“We're seeing the extension of some of the concerns that were articulated when vaccines first became available for adults. We're now seeing these extended to children,” said Dr. Mark Schleiss, a pediatric infectious disease doctor and professor at the University of Minnesota. “Namely, the issue of ‘how long have we had these vaccines? How much do we really know about these mRNA-based platforms?’ We know a lot about these vaccines and we we've had them for a long time. This idea that this is a brand-new technology that we just don't have enough information about really isn't supported by history or the scientific data.”

Like the shots for adults, Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccines have been proven to be safe and effective.

Misinformation and what some have criticized as a poor messaging effort from federal agencies has led to confusion or distrust among some Americans who are skeptical of the vaccines.

Pediatricians may be the best messengers as they have longstanding relationships with parents that predate the pandemic and will last long after it is over.

“I think one of the biggest things we’ve learned from prior rollouts is that while public health campaigns are needed, parents have already placed a large amount of trust in their child’s pediatrician making them the best person to advocate for vaccination and move that needle from hesitancy to acceptance,” Reinhart said.

General apathy towards a pandemic that has upended lives for two years is keeping some from rushing to get in line for a vaccine despite guidance from public health agencies and pediatricians.

As COVID restrictions like masking and social distancing have relaxed, so have attitudes towards the virus. Widely available therapeutics and vaccines have helped many Americans push the virus towards the back of their minds and return to pre-pandemic activity.

Children have also been the least likely to develop severe illness and had low fatality rates throughout the pandemic. That has given some a sense of security and created apathetic feelings when it comes to getting a shot.

“Early on, and in the first months of the pandemic, we were sort of moving forward with this notion that kids were somehow spared, and it was never really true,” Schleiss said. “As time has gone by, it's become more and more clear that kids are a really important reservoir that perpetuate COVID in the community.”

Even with lower fatality rate than older age groups, COVID-19 has been a leading cause of death for children and teens since 2020.

Getting vaccinated is the best defense for avoiding severe illness and death, recovering from a positive case and avoiding symptoms, research has found. That remained true for all age groups for kids even has emerging variants have taken some of the vaccines’ effectiveness away.

Companies with approved vaccines have already been working on boosters targeted at the omicron variant that initial testing has indicated gives a significant boost in protection.

“First and foremost, parents need to know that these vaccines are safe for their children. Next, they need to know that these vaccines are not a magic bullet that will prevent all cases of COVID, but children who get COVID and are vaccinated generally recover faster, are less likely to be hospitalized, and less likely to experience symptoms of long COVID,” Reinhart said. “We all want to keep our kids safe, and the vaccines are the best way to do that.”