Survey Shows COVID Vaccine Hesitancy Among Adolescents
A survey conducted by a team that includes Natoshia Askelson, senior research fellow in the Health Policy Research Program, shows that only half of parents were in favor of having their adolescents vaccinated against COVID-19. The survey was conducted by Aaron Scherer, PhD, assistant professor of internal medicine in the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, and a team of researchers from the UI College of Public Health (including Askelson), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Rand Corp, and were published July 9 in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Scherer and his coauthors stressed how important effective communication about the benefits and safety of the vaccine is.
“Understanding how parents of adolescents think about the COVID-19 vaccine gives us insight into how we can encourage COVID-19 vaccinations in adolescents, including what messages or interventions might be effective,” Askelson says. “Getting adolescents vaccinated will be key to keeping kids safe as they go back to school in the fall.”