Children and COVID-19 Research Library

The current study assessed maternal attitudes and intention about the COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 years since the onset of the Delta variant and examined if the Delta variant changed maternal perceptions about COVID-19 vaccination and COVID-19 precautions for children. Participants were 821 mothers (mean age = 40.11 years; 84.3% White) from the United States who had at least one child ages 5 to 11 years old. They were recruited online and completed questionnaires on Qualtrics about their youngest child ages 5 to 11 years. The majority of mothers (n = 595; 72.6%) reported they were very likely to have their child vaccinated for COVID-19 once a vaccine is available for children. After controlling for maternal and child factors, maternal trust in the COVID-19 vaccine development and approval process (Odds Ratios = 35.07; p <0.001), trust in the child’s physician (Odds Ratios = 1.65; p <0.01), and trust in the local public health department (Odds Ratios = 1.87; p <0.05) were associated with maternal likelihood of having one’s child vaccinated for COVID-19.

The aim of the document is to identify and articulate salient ethical considerations regarding mandatory vaccinations against COVID-19. This document updates a policy brief initially published in April 2021 in response to changes in the COVID-19 vaccine landscape, including authorization of vaccines for children and additional information about, and experiences with, vaccination mandates for COVID-19.

Teenagers' vaccination has become crucial to limit the COVID-19 transmission in the population. To increase the vaccination rate of this age group, a school-based vaccination campaign was launched in Québec, Canada from June 7 to 18, 2021. This study aimed to analyze trajectories of vaccination coverage over time among students attending 37 high schools. The study explored whether school-based vaccination campaigns contributed to the progression of the vaccination coverage and attenuated disparities in vaccination coverage across schools.

This is the first position paper to be published by WHO on the behavioural and social drivers (BeSD) of vaccine uptake. It summarizes the development of new tools and indicators to assess the BeSD of vaccine uptake for childhood and COVID-19 vaccination, enabling decision-makers on immunization policy, programme managers, and partners to address under-vaccination through an enhanced understanding of the underlying causes. This paper also reports the main findings of a scoping review that examined existing systematic reviews and meta-analyses on interventions to improve vaccine uptake – a first step towards understanding which interventions work to increase vaccine uptake, for whom, and in what settings. Finally, this paper makes recommendations for using the new tools and the resulting data to prioritize local interventions, and concludes with future research directions.

Vaccination is critical for protecting adults and children from COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and death. Analyzing subsamples of parent/guardians of children age 0–11 (n = 343) and 12–17 (n = 322) from a larger national survey of US adults (n = 2,022), this study aimed to assess intentions to vaccinate children and how intentions might vary across parent/guardian sociodemographic characteristics, healthcare coverage, vaccination status, political affiliation, prior COVID-19 infection, exposure to COVID-19 death(s) of family or friends, perceived norms of vaccination, and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. It also reported the prevalence of vaccinated children for parents whose oldest child was eligible for vaccination at the time of the survey.

This study aimed to examine the effects of a pandemic on children’s routine vaccination between 0 months and 24 months and to determine the affecting factors on vaccination during the pandemic. It was conducted between July 17, 2020, and August 1, 2020, among 513 mothers whose children were aged between 0 months and 24 months old. A total of 21 questions were asked to participants’ sociodemographic characteristics and attitudes and behaviors towards pediatric vaccines during the pandemic.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has claimed millions of lives worldwide. India also launched a COVID-19 vaccination drive, and clinical trials for a pediatric COVID-19 vaccine are in development. The study aims to assess the acceptance and attitude of parents regarding the COVID-19 vaccine for children in India. The study also aims to find the association between selected demographic variables and acceptance and attitudes in parents regarding the COVID-19 vaccine for children.

Parents' hesitancy (PH) toward childhood vaccination, including the vaccine of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), is one of the top public health threats. We aim to assess the PH toward children COVID-19 vaccination as compared to PH toward children routine vaccination among the residents of Saudi Arabia. Before the official approval of children's COVID-19 vaccination in the country, a cross-sectional study using an electronically distributed survey was performed. Responses from parents of children younger than 18 years of age were accepted. The Oxford COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy scale (OC19-VHS) and the routine vaccination hesitancy scale (R-VHS) were used. Parents were classified as hesitant, non-hesitant, and unsure.

In the late 2020s, less than 1 year into the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, several anti-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccines were introduced on a worldwide scale, with a significant positive impact on the consequences of the disease for several high-risk population groups. In the case of most bacterial or viral respiratory infections, pregnant women are at increased risk of complications, however, neither pregnant nor breastfeeding women were included in the first round of randomized clinical trials evaluating the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, because of safety and ethical concerns. Nevertheless, most anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccines have not been expressly contraindicated during pregnancy or breastfeeding, and observational data on immune response, adverse effects, and clinical efficacy in pregnant and breastfeeding women have been progressively gathered during 2021. The vast majority of these data is reassuring for what concerns side effects for women and infants and points out the efficacy of vaccines in protecting women against COVID-19-related complications. Despite this, the hesitancy of pregnant and breastfeeding women at being vaccinated is still real.

To what extent are individual and structural social determinants of health (SDoH) and vaccinations associated with child mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic? In this cohort study of 8493 US children, pandemic-related food insecurity, parental unemployment, disrupted mental health treatment, living in neighborhoods with higher shares of adults working full-time, and living in states lagging in vaccination rates were associated with increased trajectories of perceived stress, sadness, and COVID-19–related worry. Associations between SDoH and these mental health outcomes were more common among Asian, Black, and Hispanic children more than White children.

The COVID-19 virus is highly contagious primarily via aerosol transmission and has a high mortality rate. On March 13, 2020, the United States declared a national emergency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to enumerate the effect of the pandemic on vaccination rates during the COVID-19 lockdown and the aftermath in pediatric patients aged 6weeks-6 years. A retrospective review of medical records was performed of missed well childcare visits at MetroHealth from March 1, 2020 to June 30, 2020. The sample size of 400 children aged 6 weeks to 6 years were randomly selected. Demographic data, number of calls made to attempt, scheduled WCC, no show rates for clinic appointments, number of missed WCC, location of MH facility, insurance type, vaccination status prior to the pandemic were collected. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS software (IBM Corp. Released 2020. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 27.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp).

COVID-19 vaccines (Sinovac and Pfizer/BioNTech) have recently been approved for Hong Kong children. Understanding parental intentions to vaccinate children against COVID-19 is important to the development of an effective COVID-19 vaccine campaign. From a large-scale, geographically representative dataset in Hong Kong (N = 11,141), this study examined parents’ intentions to vaccinate their children against COVID-19 under three conditions: (1) no policy restrictions, (2) vaccination rate considered for school resumption, and (3) more choices of vaccine.