Parents are reluctant to vaccinate children under the age of 5, which worries health officials

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In June, when the Food and Drug Administration Approved Emergency Corona Virus Vaccines For children under 5, doctors expect concern among parents — after all, 4 in 10 parents of young children say they definitely won’t vaccinate their youngsters, according to a July Kaiser Family Foundation survey.

But doctors and public health experts never expected that there would be this little demand for vaccines for young children.

Even in areas with a strong vaccination drive, fewer young children received the shot, including in the district that received the highest percentage of vaccinations. In DC, 21 percent of children ages 6 months to 4 years received one vaccine, and only 7.5 percent received both doses. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi — which occupy the bottom of the list — the rate is even worse, at less than 0.2 percent. Health officials worry that insufficient vaccination coverage will leave the country vulnerable to coronavirus outbreaks in the fall and winter.

Just under 325,000 children were fully vaccinated Nationally, according to the CDC. While some parents blame a lack of access, experts believe misinformation about the number of shots fired by young children is contributing to vaccine hesitancy.

Peter Hotez, an infectious-disease physician and pediatrician at Baylor College of Medicine’s National School of Tropical Medicine, said he hoped vaccination rates would improve as the months went by, but they remain stagnant.

“I thought maybe it was just winter, and people were traveling,” Hotez said.

Nationally, one-dose vaccination rates increase with children’s age. Children under 5 years of age have a 6 percent single-dose vaccination rate. For children ages 5 to 11, it’s six times higher, at 38 percent; And 12- to 17-year-olds have the highest vaccination rate among youth, at 70 percent.

Low vaccination rates among young children reflect inadequate communication about the shot, Hotez said.

“We haven’t done a good job of elucidating the long-term developmental consequences of Covid in young children,” Hotez said. “And future variations of the coronavirus are very likely.”

From March 2020 to June 2022, 1.9 million children between the ages of 1 and 4 were confirmed to be infected with the corona virus, and 202 of them died. These numbers pale in comparison to the death toll for adults: Since the outbreak, Covid has killed more than 1 million American adults. Scientists are still concerned about the long-term consequences of children being infected with the coronavirus, saying they do not have enough data to know whether children develop long-term issues from a single coronavirus infection or multiple infections.

Zachary Rubin, MD, a pediatric allergist and immunologist in Illinois, said the death of a child from a vaccine-preventable illness should be reason enough for parents to vaccinate their children. He said the long-term effects of the virus on young children, including disorders such as brain fog and smell – symptoms that are difficult to diagnose should be of greater concern to parents.

“A baby or toddler can’t tell you if they’re tired or have constant headaches, so you don’t know if something’s amiss even when the obvious physical symptoms are gone,” Rubin says.

Parents’ reluctance to vaccinate comes as confidence in public health guidelines is eroding. A 2021 Harvard study found that many Americans are concerned about how public health institutions are performing. in the The last decadethe public health system experienced a decline in positive rates.

Instead, Megan C. of New Jersey expresses her faith in the health care system.

“I’m doing this now because it’s a mom’s movement, not because it’s like, ‘You know what? I’m standing up to big pharma and not vaccinating my kids.’ Absolutely,” she said. “I do this because the health care system has been so difficult for me in the past.

The choice not to vaccinate her children was a personal one for Megan C. – a decision she believes all parents should make based on their own family’s needs.

“I don’t care [other parents] choosing They are your children. And I wanted the same choice for my family,” she said.

Some parents lament the failure to adequately promote vaccination for young children. When the FDA announced the vaccines were available, Rachel DeVore, a New York mother of sons 6 and 3, said she received no notification from her children’s doctors.

“My pediatricians never reached out to me — I was the one who called them the day after I heard the vaccines were out,” Devore said. She wasn’t afraid to give the vaccine to her children, but they didn’t turn out like she expected.

DeVore said many of her friends didn’t know the vaccine was FDA-approved for children under 5 until they learned about it from social media.

“After I posted about getting the male vaccine, a mom who is a friend of mine on Facebook called me saying she didn’t know the vaccines existed and thanked me for posting about it,” DeVore said.

Rubin, a pediatrician, said he wished there was stronger promotion of vaccinations by public health officials on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

“I don’t see a strong presence from management agencies to promote to children under 5 and debunk these myths,” he said.

That little message is in contrast to when coronavirus vaccines first came on the market for adults in December 2020. Then the shout: “Take the shot.” The message was strong and in your face.

Politicians include House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). They are pictured getting their swords, The phrase “Fauci ouchy” It was framed, there were posters. Posted on bus stops In all cities. The priority was immediate and serious. But now, 2½ years into the outbreak, the urgency for vaccinations for children under 5 years old seems to have subsided.

“The message was not enough,” said the pediatrician and senior vice president of health equity and diversity initiatives with state and local health officials. “Once the country is overwhelmed by Covid, it takes a step back on the importance of vaccination when our young children are eligible for the vaccine.

Anki Dutta, a pediatric infectious-disease specialist at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine, said a stronger drive from local public health officials could boost vaccination rates. As time goes on, doctors face another issue: the fear surrounding the coronavirus is waning, making people more comfortable with the “Covid disease.”

“Parents need information from someone they trust and that person should be their family practice provider,” Dutta said.

The American Academy of Pediatrics urges parents to vaccinate their children, but pediatricians say access is an issue. Unlike adult vaccines offered by pharmaceutical giants like CVS and Walgreens, children under 18 months must get their vaccinations from a pediatrician. CVS Minute Clinic offers the vaccine only to children 18 months and older. Children age 3 and older can get the vaccine at Walgreens. In many cases, parents of children under 5 years of age should make an appointment with their pediatrician for the vaccination.

Physicians at Florida And Massachusetts He reported in the Miami Herald and the Boston Globe that vaccines had to be dropped due to lack of demand.

“Any vaccine wasted is a vaccine given to someone who needs it to stay healthy,” Wyche-Etheridge said.

By chance, Vaccination hesitancy Among parents, it seems, they are designed in part by this calculation: How does the rare chance of dying from the virus compare with the rare prospect of a vaccine-related complication?

“We can’t blame parents for being afraid to do it,” said Samira Armin, a Houston pediatrician who urges parents to get their children vaccinated. “They feel they are protecting their children, but they should be [aware] They may often make the choice to have their child contract Covid, which has been shown to have negative and general consequences for their future health.

Armin says that any symptoms — such as pain, headaches, muscle aches or chills — usually occur within a few days of receiving the vaccine. Therefore, if a child is going to get one of these side effects, the parent will know immediately.

“It’s like having three glasses of wine. You’re either going to have a hangover the next day or you’re not. A hangover won’t show up for three weeks,” said Armin.

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