Almost 40 percent of New York City parents are hesitant to vaccinate their young children for COVID-19, according to a new study by researchers at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH).
For the study, which was published Thursday in the American Journal of Public Health, Assistant Professor Chloe Teasdale and colleagues surveyed 2,506 New Yorkers with kids ages five to 11 years, two weeks after the FDA granted emergency use authorization of COVID-19 vaccines for school-aged children. In the representative survey, 12 percent reported that their child was already vaccinated and 51 percent reported being very or somewhat likely to get their child vaccinated. The survey also showed that eight percent of parents were not sure and 29 percent of parents reported they were not very likely or not at all likely to vaccinate their child.
The findings are consistent with a March 2021 survey, also conducted by CUNY SPH researchers, and suggest that many New York City parents may not vaccinate their children for COVID-19. Also consistent with previous studies, 89 percent of vaccine-hesitant parents (those saying they were unsure, not very likely, or not at all likely to vaccinate their child) cited safety concerns as the reason for their hesitancy and 78 percent reported concerns about the effectiveness of the COVID vaccines.
Read the full article at CUNY SPH.