Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center.
A new report shows wide racial and ethnic differences in COVID-19 vaccination of children, with Asian children being the most likely to be vaccinated and Black children being the least likely.
Parents who did not vaccinate their children cited safety concerns, were more likely to have friends and family who were not vaccinated, and were less likely to say a healthcare provider recommended vaccination, according to results released by the CDC.
The results are important, researchers noted, because people who are Black, Hispanic or Latino have an elevated risk of being infected, hospitalized, or dying due to COVID-19. This is because of “underlying conditions that affect health, including socioeconomic status, access to health care, and exposure to the virus related to occupation, e.g., frontline, essential, and critical infrastructure workers,” according to the CDC.
“Enhanced public health efforts are needed to increase COVID-19 vaccination coverage for all children and adolescents,” researchers wrote. “To increase overall coverage and address disparities in child and adolescent COVID-19 vaccination coverage, providers and trusted messengers should provide culturally relevant information and vaccine recommendations.”
Survey results showed that among children ages 5 to 17:
-
73.4% of Asian respondents were vaccinated
-
49% of Hispanic or Latino respondents were vaccinated
-
49% of multiracial respondents and those identifying as “other” were vaccinated
-
45% of white respondents were vaccinated
-
44.7% of Black respondents were vaccinated
The findings come from the CDC’s National Immunization Survey. The survey tallied responses from input from 94,838 households with children ages 6 months to 17 years old regarding vaccination status from December 2020 to September 2022. The responses were collected from September 2021 to September 2022.
Vaccination of children was most likely among those ages 12 to 17, those whose mothers had a college degree, and those whose household income was $75,000 a year or more. Households that reported frequently wearing masks in public were also more likely to say their children were vaccinated.
CDC: “Racial and Ethnic Differences in COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage Among Children and Adolescents Aged 5–17 Years and Parental Intent to Vaccinate Their Children — National Immunization Survey–Child COVID Module, United States, December 2020–September 2022.” “Risk for COVID-19 Infection, Hospitalization, and Death By Race/Ethnicity.”
Source: Read Full Article