Misinformation drives low child COVID vaccination rates, Penn study finds

Misinformation continues to be a leading reason that people decide against getting the COVID-19 vaccine, despite almost two years of real-world evidence that the vaccines are overwhelmingly safe, a new study from the University of Pennsylvania found.

Fears of vaccines in general, and the COVID vaccines specifically, are influencing parents’ decisions about vaccinating their children, too, the study found. Fewer than one-third of children ages 5 to 11 have been vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, despite being eligible since October 2021.

This mirrors the uptake levels that have played out nationally. Vaccination rates among 5- to 11-year-olds in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania are similar to national rates.

A survey of nearly 2,000 people by researchers at Penn’s Annenberg Public Policy Center found that those who opted against vaccination were more scared about the potential dangers of COVID vaccines than they were about contracting COVID.

Worries about the vaccines’ safety intensified when children were involved.

While vaccinated people were more likely to vaccinate their children, some did not feel comfortable getting a child the shots they had taken themselves.

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Researcher Dan Romer said the misconceptions centered around vaccine safety. He is the lead author of a study based on the findings of the survey, which was conducted in April, June, and September 2021 and January 2022. The research article appears in the September issue of the medical journal Vaccine.

“That explains why people’s misbeliefs about vaccinating kids are so highly related to their concerns about vaccines in general,” said Romer, the Annenberg Center’s research director.

While children are much less likely than adults to develop serious illness from COVID, vaccines significantly reduce risks for all ages.

COVID vaccines have proven overwhelmingly effective at preventing severe illness and death. With about 78% of American adults now fully vaccinated, recent surges in COVID infections have not been accompanied by big increases in hospitalizations and deaths.

People taking the survey were generally aware that COVID was less likely to cause serious illness in children than adults. About half said children ages 5 to 11 years were not too likely or not likely at all to be hospitalized for COVID if they were not vaccinated, and 70% said unvaccinated children were not likely to die from it.

Of the approximately 14.8 million children infected with COVID since the start of the pandemic, the virus has proven fatal for roughly less than 0.01% of them, according to the CDC.

The Penn study found old, false ideas about vaccines die hard, including a long-debunked connection between vaccination and autism.

When asked to evaluate the accuracy of the true statement “vaccines given to children for diseases like measles, mumps, and rubella do NOT cause autism,” about 30% said the statement was false or they weren’t sure. Fewer than half said the statement was definitely true.

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Close to a quarter of respondents either agreed with or weren’t sure about other false statements, including claims that COVID vaccines have killed thousands of people, that the vaccine changes people’s DNA, or that it causes infertility.

About 12% of respondents thought COVID vaccines were more dangerous than the virus itself, and 10% weren’t sure.

The survey found 6% of respondents believed vaccines contained toxins including antifreeze.

Among households surveyed with children under 18 years old, almost 27% said they were not at all likely to recommend a child ages 5 to 11 get a COVID vaccine, and nearly 14% said they were not too likely to recommend it.

The study reached similar conclusions as other reviews of attitudes toward vaccination, finding the children of Black and Hispanic Americans, and Republicans, had lower rates of vaccination.

The study highlighted, though, that people’s opinions could change. People in the survey were more likely to be uncertain about vaccine misinformation than to fully believe these misconceptions.

“If those who do not know could be assured that allegations about vaccine harms are false,” the study stated, “it could reduce the magnitude of the resistance within that group considerably.”