Survey: Most U.S. Parents Plan to Vaccinate Young Children Against Flu, RSV
COLLEGE STATION, TX – Most parents of infants and young children in the United States intend to have their children vaccinated against influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), despite growing opposition to the vaccines.
That’s according to a new survey which also found that 40% of parents plan to vaccinate their children against COVID-19. Results were published in the journal Vaccine.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0264410X23013038?dgcid=author
The Texas A&M University School of Public Health study asked parents about their intention to vaccinate their children against COVID-19, influenza and RSV — often called the “tripledemic” that experts predict for this winter.
The online survey involved 5,035 parents across the United States who responded on Sept. 27 and 28. For each of the three vaccines, participants were asked about disease-specific issues that are commonly used in research on vaccine hesitancy. Those included whether they were concerned about their child getting the specific disease, using a five-point scale. Questions on political preferences and demographic factors such as race and ethnicity, gender, age and income also were included.
The statistical analysis found that about 40% of parents intended to vaccinate their children against COVID-19, 63% against influenza and 71% against RSV.
. “In this case, parents made the decision because they were concerned about these diseases, they trusted health providers and their children were previously vaccinated,”. explained Simon F. Haeder, PhD, an associate professor of health policy and management. “Those who were opposed said they were concerned about vaccine safety and necessity, and believed they lacked information about the vaccines.”
Overall, the study found that the intention to vaccinate was consistently correlated with concerns about the disease, trust in health institutions, and previous vaccinations.
Among the findings:
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Women showed lower intentions for COVID-19 and influenza.
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For COVID-19 and RSV, intentions were higher for those who thought vaccines were important.
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Concerns about autism were negatively associated for COVID-19.
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Liberals showed larger intentions for COVID-19.
The authors note that major reasons for hesitancy include concerns about safety, necessity, and lack of information. “The large number of unvaccinated children will likely lead to large numbers of excessive disease in children as well as exert large negative externalities on society at large,” they add.
Background information in the article advises that the COVID-19 pandemic and introduction of novel vaccines “appear to only have exacerbated existing trends in vaccination hesitancy. However, vaccination hesitancy has been particularly prevalent for COVID-19.”
It notes that, from a public health perspective, growing rates of vaccine hesitancy and refusal are worrisome not only because the target population will suffer more illnesses and deaths but also because the social cost from vaccine-preventable diseases can be large, and the effects of low vaccination rates disproportionally affect marginalized communities and vulnerable populations such as older adults.
“The existence of vaccines against influenza and COVID-19, as well as the newly developed antibody immunization against RSV [15], [16], provide the unique opportunity to substantially limit avoidable sickness and deaths in the fall and winter of 2023–2024,” according to the researchers. “However, there are reasons to be skeptical that large numbers of parents will seek out vaccinations for their children, including growing vaccination hesitancy in general [1], the elimination of federal COVID-19 funding [17], and perceptions amongst many Americans that the pandemic is over. As a result, the United States will likely experience a large number of cases for the three common but now vaccine-preventable diseases in the fall and winter of 2023–2024. By some estimates, the 2023/2024 “tripledemic” of COVID-19, influenza, and RSV may lead to 100,000 deaths.”
Because parental intentions to vaccinate against the three diseases remained underexplored, the researchers conducted the survey.“
“Now, with the newly developed antibody immunization against RSV, in addition to vaccines against influenza and COVID-19, we have a unique opportunity to avoid illness and death this fall and winter,” Haeder said. “But vaccine hesitancy—along with the elimination of COVID-19 funding and a belief that the pandemic is behind us—make it likely that the United States will experience an excessive amount of preventable illness from COVID-19, influenza and RSV this fall and winter.”
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