Numbers released by the White House show that, since it was made available to children aged 5-12, over 2 million American children have gotten the COVID vaccine. However, that number only represents about one-third of the nation’s kids.
Cyrus Shahpar, the President’s COVID-19 data director, says over 200 million Americans in all have gotten inoculated against COVID-19.
Parents of the remaining two-thirds of unvaccinated U.S. children are either waiting for more time to pass to monitor any possible side effects in vaccinated children or will not be vaccinating their kids, according to a new poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
While 63% of parents are confident in the vaccine’s safety when it comes to adults, that confidence dips when it comes to their belief about the longterm safety of teens (52%) and children (43%) getting vaccinated.
The poll does show that parents with teenaged children are more open-minded about eventually vaccinating their offspring, but so far only about half of all teenagers in America are vaccinated.
Meanwhile, Shahpar has touted the effectiveness of a third COVID-19 shot for those adults who were vaccinated when the shot was first made available earlier this year.
“Early evidence indicates boosters increase protection against omicron,” Shahpar says. “Get boosted!”
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