Pamela Cruz. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
While the last few months in the U.S. have seen a significant decrease in the number of deaths due to COVID-19, there has been a spike in SARS-CoV-2 infections. Yes, the elderly are still getting infected, but the youngest segment of the population, that is, children and adolescents, are now at serious risk of becoming infected and developing severe symptoms, so vaccinating them against the disease will be key to stopping the pandemic.
However, there is a strong reluctance for children and young people to be immunized against one of the deadliest viruses in history, skepticism and mistrust have become the bread and butter for women who are against the anti-COVID-19 vaccine in themselves and their children, especially the younger ones.
So said Covid States Project researcher Matthew Simonson, author of the report "Vaccinating America's Youth," during a press conference held by the Covid States Project. Ethnic Media Servicesin which she noted that mothers between the ages of 34 and 36 are the most resistant to vaccinating themselves or their children.
"We found that about a third of them said they are very unlikely to vaccinate their children. That's our definition of resistant. On five variables ranging from extremely likely to extremely unlikely to vaccinate their children, they chose the most extreme and unlikely option. So we say about a third of young mothers are resistant, and that hasn't changed since February," she said.
In contrast, he said, parents of all ages are 10 to 15 percent resistant. "In fact, parents have become less resistant in recent months. Resistance has dropped from 14 percent to 11 percent in February."
"This gender difference is especially important because mothers are the ones most involved in making these decisions about their children's health," the expert stressed.
Those are part of a survey of 25,000 Americans conducted monthly since the pandemic began in the spring of 2020, which monitors people's attitudes toward vaccines and other areas of public health, Simonson said.
While skepticism of childhood vaccination before the pandemic was about 4 to 5 percent, the same has not been true for the COVID-19 vaccine. "We're seeing, again, about a third of mothers saying, no way, my child is not getting the vaccine."
But, this type of thinking is largely experienced by Caucasians, since according to the analysis mentioned by the researcher, for the first time African-American and Latino families are not observed to be lagging behind, while those who top the lists of those who vaccinate their children are Asian-American families.
"At this point in time, parents of all races, except for Asian Americans, who are the most pro-vaccine, seemed to be about the same place by race. However, socioeconomic differences are still very important."
In that sense, he added that between those who are vaccinated and those who are not, there are large gaps in their family income, as those who earn less than 25 thousand dollars a year are the most resistant to vaccines, while those who exceed 150 thousand dollars a year are the most pro-vaccine.
This is also reflected in the level of education, as those with only high school are the most vaccine-resistant and those with a bachelor's degree are the most pro-vaccine when it comes to vaccinating their children.
Finally, Simonson recalled that the age of the children is also important in their parents' decision making when deciding whether or not to inoculate them, as it was observed that parents of adolescents are slightly less resistant than parents of young children.
"This is quite encouraging because we know that this is the order in which people have access to the vaccine right now. Adolescents can get it next to probably elementary school, toddler age, and finally, it's going to be the younger kids. And so we hope that there can be a downward momentum."
But where do parents get their information, and to what extent does that influence their decisions to vaccinate themselves and their children?
Simonson made it clear that many of those who opt not to vaccinate get their information from social media, and according to studies, only 44 percent of parents consider the benefits of vaccines to outweigh the side effects, compared to 55 percent of those who don't have children.
However, the phenomenon of young mothers who are anti-vaccine is highlighted by the fact that they are much more likely to interact with other women like themselves, who do not work and whose social circle is very closed.
This, coupled with the fact that they belong to or are in social networking groups that are part of parents' associations that do not get real, truthful and formal information on health issues, specifically vaccines.
"I think - disinformation - can originally come from social media, but it's not just disinformation, it's hearing what your friends repeat. That's what really reinforces it, makes you believe it. It's not just that you saw something somewhere online. It's what your friend believes too now, it's really reinforcing things."
Among the most common responses about vaccination, according to the study, are long-term side effects. I'm not sure it's going to work and I don't fully trust the vaccine approval process," Simonson said.
The importance of a vaccine
For Dr. Grace Lee, Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine and Associate Medical Director for Practice Innovation at Stanford Children's Health, it is important to vaccinate children and adolescents against COVID-19 because of the burden of infection.
During her speech, the doctor explained that much attention has been paid to the elderly, but not to children and what happens to them regarding this disease.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), nearly 4 million children have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, but the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that, after adjustment, perhaps as many as 22 million children and adolescents aged 5 to 17 have been infected in the United States, he said.
As such, he detailed that children are accounting for nearly a quarter of the newly reported cases of COVID-19 in the most recent weeks.
This, she explained, is related to the fact that children and adolescents are returning to face-to-face classes, but it's also because "vaccines have been so effective in protecting the adult population that, overall, the proportion of reported hospitalizations seems to be increasing in children, but that's primarily because of the protection we're seeing among our adults, and so the burden of disease can be significant.
Lee reported personally observing children being hospitalized and some who have died from the disease.
"Although it's not as common to occur in young children compared to our older adult population, children are also at risk. We know that among the hospitalizations we've seen in the U.S. while 60 percent have a high-risk condition, including obesity, asthma, developmental delay, immunocompromised and diabetes. We also know that 40% of the children who are hospitalized don't have high-risk conditions.
To that, he added that among hospitalized children in the U.S., there has been a disproportionate number of those from the African-American and Latino communities, some of whom have developed severe hyperinflammatory syndrome.
She added that, so far, children are known to be less symptomatic, but can transmit the disease to other members of their family. "And so it's been really important for us to make sure that we're not only protecting children from the burden of the disease, but also continuing to be able to protect our family members as well."
He recalled that, based on a clinical trial, the vaccine was shown to be 100 percent effective and produce a robust immune response among 12- to 15-year-olds, as well as being as safe and having a profile similar to that seen in adults.
He further explained that some children have local reactions to the vaccine such as a sore arm, redness or tenderness at the injection site, as well as systemic symptoms, such as headaches, muscle aches, pains, fever and the like, which, like in adults, are short-lived.
Being Latino in times of COVID-19
Dr. Jose Perez, medical director of South Central Family Health Center in Los Angeles, sees clearly that it is not easy for Latino families to vaccinate their children, mainly because of time.
One of the main reasons for lack of vaccination is access to time off from work. Most of our patients have low-income jobs, like restaurants and day laborers, and so it's a burden for them as well. To take a day off, they just went back to work and now they have to juggle going back to work, having their children at home because they're not attending school right now, and having to juggle having an extra day or an extra half day in order to come to the clinic and vaccinate their children."
In that regard, the specialist points out that Los Angeles County has done a tremendous job in mass vaccine placement, but it requires a car to access it, and "most of our patients use public transportation. So that's an added barrier".
"When you can take time off from work and then you have to jump on a bus to go, get your child and then bring your child back home and then set up and go to work. That usually takes a whole day. So our patients are basically being asked to choose between earning a living during the day or vaccinating their children," she stressed.
Added to this are barriers such as language, immigration status and fear of deportation, as well as those who listen to what they read on social media and misinformation on the Internet.
According to Dr. Perez, children will follow their parents - when it comes to vaccination - because after all, parents have to agree to vaccinate their children, since they can't be immunized without their permission.
"What I've found, especially with Latino teens today, is that they're connected to social media, but they seem to be more attuned to vaccination. They seem to have a lot more and better information than their parents and, most of the time, it's our kids and teens who are really helping to educate their own parents," she said.
Finally, he called on parents not to be afraid of vaccines, as there is a lot of experience with them.
"We have a lot of experience with the vaccine, we don't see children suffering from polio or dying from chicken pox or dying from mumps, and the reason is that we have been vaccinating our children for a long time."
And for those who doubt the COVID-19 vaccine, he pointed out that "it went through the same rigorous testing and the same rigorous scientific evaluation as all the other vaccines. The only difference is that the scientist stopped everything he was doing to focus on this, and the timeline is what ended up being narrowed down.
