MIAMI VALLEY — A new Kaiser Family Foundation survey shows the majority of parents in the U.S. said they will hold off on getting their kids vaccinated.
The study came out as Pfizer waits for the FDA to approve its vaccine for kids 12 to 15-years-old.
The research found 29 percent said they would vaccinate right away. However, 32 percent will wait to see how it works. 15 percent said their kids will only get the shot if their schools require it. 19 percent said they will definitely not let their kids get vaccinated.
The study came out as misinformation about the vaccines and children is spreading online in the Miami Valley.
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A post on the WHIO Facebook page about how the FDA is expected to approve Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for kids 12-15 by next week had more than 200 comments.
Some people expressed excitement and others described concern. Others, however posted untrue statements that go against what medical professionals are saying about the matter.
For example, multiple people called the prospect of vaccinating children “child abuse.”
Dr. Roberto Colón, Chief Medical Officer for Miami Valley Hospital disputed these claims.
“This is not child abuse. Child abuse is when you’re willfully doing something to hurt a child, or you are neglecting a child. What we are doing with these vaccines, which are not yet approved for kids, is trying to protect them. There are studies, and parents have enrolled their kids in studies to participate to be able to assess the safety,” Dr. Colón said. “These are not experiments. These are ways of trying to protect our kids.”
Another consistent theme in the comment section was the issue of FDA approval.
Right now, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson have emergency use authorization for people 18 and older. Pfizer has the same status for those 16 and older.
“The initial studies that were done just didn’t have enough of the younger individuals to really be able to fully comment on safety, so that was actually a safety reason that they did not go ahead and grant the EUA for the younger individuals. They just didn’t have enough data. We now have millions of people who have received these vaccines, the safety that has come out is larger than most of the study groups when new medications or new vaccines are even submitted to the FDA,” Dr. Colón said.
He explained, the data coming out has both proven safety and efficacy, and therefore the vaccines should end up getting full FDA approval.
Dr. Colón said the misinformation surrounding the vaccines is concerning because it is a barrier to getting people vaccinated.