Less than half of Americans would vaccinate their child against Covid, survey shows

'Hopefully by the time we get to the late spring and early summer we will have children being able to be vaccinated,' says Dr Fauci

(AFP via Getty Images)

Vaccinating children may be an important part of ending Covid-19, but a recent survey shows most American parents aren’t sold on the idea – at least not yet.

Just 42 per cent of US adults polled by Verywell Health said they planned to give their children the Covid vaccine, according to Axios. A daunting 32 per cent said they did not, and 19 percent said they haven’t decided. “Hopefully by the time we get to the late spring and early summer we will have children being able to be vaccinated,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical advisor, said at a coronavirus briefing last week.

This comes as US officials ramp up expectations for getting most Americans of all ages inoculated in the coming months.

That goal may be harder to reach if parents are reluctant to get the shot for their children – or even themselves. Only 49 per cent of Americans surveyed by Verywell said they would agree to receive the vaccine, even if it was free.

None of the coronavirus vaccines currently available to adults have yet been approved for young children, but testing on kids is underway. Pfizer is currently conducting a trial on children aged 12 to 15, and Moderna is recruiting test subjects aged 12 to 17.

Experts say vaccinating children, who make up about 25 percent of the US population, will be an important part of stamping out the virus in the United States.

“Children tend to not become as severely ill as adults but they can still become ill and some have tragically died,” Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency room physician, told the Associated Press. “Children can also be vectors of transmission, and getting children vaccinated is important as we strive for herd immunity.”

That goal is a long way off. Dr. Fauci estimates herd immunity may require as much as 85 percent of Americans to get the vaccine. So far, just 1.3 percent of Americans have been fully vaccinated.