With nearly 2 million new COVID-19 vaccination doses administered daily in the U.S., a recent study finds that parents are more reluctant to get themselves inoculated from the coronavirus than people without children.
Researchers from Northeastern, Harvard, Northwestern, and Rutgers found that the skepticism was most pronounced among young mothers who tend to mistrust vaccinations in general, including treatments that prevent childhood diseases like polio. Their reluctance may trigger a clash if schools require COVID-19 vaccinations as a condition of returning to in-person learning in the fall.
“That can’t be done yet because vaccines aren’t approved for children,” says David Lazer, university distinguished professor of political science and computer and information sciences at Northeastern, and one of the researchers who conducted the study.
“But by the fall vaccines may well be approved, and then school systems will confront a policy conundrum if they mandate that children be vaccinated,” he adds.
