Poll Finds Parents Largely Split On Vaccinating Young Kids For COVID-19

Getting children under 12 immunized "may be a tougher challenge than getting parents and older children immunized," the Gallup poll concluded.

A new poll has found that just more than half of parents with children under the age of 12 in the U.S. plan to vaccinate their children against the coronavirus when a vaccine becomes available, suggesting great hesitancy as Pfizer seeks federal approval to administer its vaccine to children.

A random sampling of more than 4,000 parents over seven days earlier this month found that 45% said they would not vaccinate their child under the age of 12, while 55% said they would, according to the Gallup poll results released Tuesday.

The poll’s results were released the same day that Pfizer and BioNTech submitted their vaccine data to the Food and Drug Administration for review after determining that their vaccine is both safe and effective in children ages 5 to 11. Currently, COVID-19 vaccines are not authorized for children under 12 in the U.S.