After an initial wave of enthusiasm among parents to have their children vaccinated against COVID-19, there has been a noticeable uptick in parental resistance since June that is contributing to a slowing of the teen vaccination rate, a newly released study says. The proportion of vaccine-enthusiastic parents (defined as those who have either had their children vaccinated, or say that they are likely to do so) dropped to 57% in November from 64% at the start of the summer, according to a U.S. study by the Covid States Project, a collaborative effort by researchers from Northeastern, Harvard, Northwestern, and Rutgers.
“That decline is striking to me,” says David Lazer, a university distinguished professor of political science and computer science, and one of the study’s authors. “We went through a rapid process of parents vaccinating their children, and now we’re hitting a slow point (with teens) much sooner than we did with adults.”
