More than a quarter of Quebec parents are against vaccinating 5- to 11-year-olds, study says
CBC
More than a quarter of parents of children aged five to 11 say they would not get them vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the latest data from Quebec's public health research institute.
A survey by the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) conducted from Oct. 1-13 gave a portrait of parents' intentions to vaccinate their children aged five to 11. At this time, there is not yet a COVID-19 vaccine approved for that age group.
The study shows that 22 per cent do not wish to have their young children vaccinated. Another five per cent somewhat disagreed with vaccination and a further 10 per cent were still unsure.
"Generally, we're a lot more sensitive to risks for our children than for ourselves, and that's true for all vaccines," Ève Dubé, an anthropologist and scientific advisor at the INSPQ, told Radio-Canada's Tout un matin. "Side-effects that are minor could be perceived as riskier, more serious, or even dangerous."
Canada has yet to greenlight a COVID-19 vaccine for this age group. So far, only Pfizer-BioNtech has submitted a children's COVID-19 vaccine for approval to Health Canada.
Results of the INSPQ survey also show that parents of young children are more negative about vaccination than parents of teenagers were when they faced the same decision last spring.
For the teens, 82 per cent parents surveyed approved of vaccination and only 14 per cent did not want their children to get the vaccine.
Based on the data for 5- to 11-year-olds, 44 per cent of parents "completely agree" to have them vaccinated against COVID-19, and when that is added to the number of parents who "somewhat agree" to getting their children vaccinated, the rate of those in favour rises to 63 per cent.
Andrea Cappelli says she is counting the days until her son, Gabriel, 11, who suffers from severe asthma, becomes eligible for the vaccine.
"There is no question that I'll take the first appointment available," she said.
She and Gabriel live in a household where four out of five family members have asthma.
"We're doing it for for Gabriel's sake, but I'm also doing it for my elderly parents' sake," she said. "I want to give him the best shot at being protected. I know it's not 100 per cent, but it's about as good we can do right now."
According to Dubé, one reason for the hesitancy for younger children is that the vaccination campaign for 5- to 11-year-olds hasn't started yet. She says support for vaccination generally tends to increase as a campaign gets underway.
Another is that parents of very young children tend to be in the 25- to 44-year-old age group, where there is the most vaccine hesitancy among adults, Dubé said.
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