Most MA Parents Will Vaccinate Younger Kids After FDA OK: Survey

MASSACHUSETTS — More than six in 10 Massachusetts parents with kids under 12 say they plan to get their children vaccinated when the shot is approved for kids under 12, according to the latest Patch survey of reader views on the coronavirus.

"I don't want to be that family someone's else's family caught it from," one of the respondents with younger children said.

The parents were among the 3,070 respondents to the latest Patch survey of reader views on the coronavirus pandemic, which was conducted earlier this week and ahead of expected FDA approval as early as this month. The survey is not meant to be a scientific poll, with random sampling and margins of error, but is meant only to gauge the sentiments of our readers in an informal way.

The vaccine was approved for people over the age of 12 in May. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna began clinical trials of their coronavirus vaccines for kids under 12 in August, and Pfizer submitted results of the trials to the FDA last week. If the FDA grants emergency use authorization, kids in the 5-to-11 age group could start getting the Pfizer vaccine by Halloween. Meanwhile, some parents have already started asking pediatricians to administer the shot "off label" to their younger children.

Of the 1,202 respondents who have children not currently eligible for the vaccine, 729, or 60.6 percent, said they would get their younger kids vaccinated. Another 399, or 33.2 percent, said they would not get their children under 12 vaccinated, while the remaining 74 respondents said they were undecided.

"I will not feel safe living in the world again until my daughter has been vaccinated," one respondent said. "The vaccines have been shown to be safe and effective. I know some parents are hesitant, and I wish there were better information available for them."

In each of the earlier trials which led to approval for the vaccine in adults and, later, older children, an advisory committee for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ruled the benefits of getting vaccinated outweighed the minimal risks. The trials now being reviewed by FDA are aimed at determining the proper dose for children.

"The FDA takes very seriously the importance of getting vaccines, shown to be safe and effective in children," Dr. Anthony Fauci told MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' show last week. "I would imagine in the next few weeks they will examine that data and hopefully give the O.K. so we can start vaccinating children hopefully by the end of October."

The survey also suggested Massachusetts has reached the ceiling for vaccinating adults. Just 33 respondents, or 1.1 percent, said they have not been vaccinated but still plan to get them. Of the remaining respondents, 328, or 10.6 percent, said they do not plan to get vaccinated, while the remaining 88.3 percent have had at least one shot of the vaccine.

Comments left in the survey showed some respondents remain susceptible to politically-motivated campaigns to spread misinformation about the safety of coronavirus vaccines. Those comments included confusion over the FDA's "emergency" designation for vaccines, concerns over the speed at which the vaccines were developed, and beliefs that children can't spread and are immune from serious COVID-19 illnesses.

But the American Academy of Pediatrics reported a significant increase in COVID-19 cases in people under 18 years of age when the delta variant of coronavirus emerged earlier this year. The vaccine also prevents children from transmitting the disease to people more susceptible to serious, coronavirus illnesses.

"While not as likely as adults, children can become severely ill with COVID-19. They might need to be hospitalized, treated in the intensive care unit or placed on a ventilator to help them breathe, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention," the Mayo Clinic said in an article aimed at dispelling common COVID-19 myths. "A COVID-19 vaccine can prevent your child from getting and spreading the COVID-19 virus. If your child gets COVID-19, a COVID-19 vaccine could prevent him or her from becoming severely ill. Getting a COVID-19 vaccine may also allow your child to start doing things that he or she might not have been able to do because of the pandemic."

"I believe the vaccines have proven themselves to be safe with negligible side effects and those that have occurred seem to most severely affect those that would have had even worse responses to the coronavirus in the first place," another Patch survey respondent said. "If vaccinating children mitigates the spread to the point where we can return to some sense of normalcy in society and the world at large, then we should extend the vaccine to our children, so they can have that normal experience without fear of illness or harming others."