In The News: Kids’ COVID Vaccinations Plummet

Bloomberg reports parental enthusiasm for vaccinating their children has waned just as shots for children under 5 are being considered. Vaccinations for children are at the lowest recorded levels since first approved. CDC reports that just 41% of children aged 5-11 have gotten a shot compared to 75% of the total U.S. population.

By age group, parents of 12-15-year-olds acted more eagerly than did parents of 5-11-year-olds when comparing uptake from the day the vaccines were made available to those groups. Part of the reason may be parental belief that the virus is not as severe for younger kids.

Overall, the COVID-19 vaccinations have proven highly effective. Even as the Delta and Omicron variants proliferated amongst the population, severe outcomes were largely avoided by the vaccinated. Age-adjusted data from December showed unvaccinated adults were 16 times more likely to be hospitalized than vaccinated adults. The same held true for vaccinated adolescents. Unvaccinated 12-17 year-olds experienced hospitalization rates eight times higher than their vaccinated peers. Data were unavailable for the younger age group eligible for vaccination.