Canadian parents are hesitant about vaccinating kindergarteners against COVID-19 and resent being made to “feel guilty” by federal regulators, according to in-house research by the Privy Council Office (PCO) obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter on Friday.
“Participants had a number of questions regarding vaccines,” said the research, called Continuous Qualitative Data Collection Of Canadians’ Views. “Most commonly focused on side effects and potential long-term implications of their use.”
Health Canada approved the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for children five- to-11 years old in November. About 28% of Canadian children in this age range have been fully vaccinated to date.
Findings were based on focus groups across Canada. The Privy Council paid $1.6 million for the report by the Strategic Counsel from a year-long series of questionnaires on certain topics.
PCO researchers said that parents in Calgary focus groups said they had “legitimate concerns about the possible side effects and long-term impacts of a drug that, in their view, had been rushed to market for emergency use and remained largely untested in children.”
Meanwhile, Toronto focus groups said that they “objected to what they saw as an attempt to make them feel guilty and worried about the well-being of their children.”
According to the research, parents were not anti-science but rather “vaccine hesitant.”
“Among parents, opinions were mixed,” said the research. “Some were interested and either discussing it with their children or had made the decision themselves to go ahead, while others were hesitant and wanted to wait for more data to be made available concerning safety.”
PCO researchers also reported many among the “vaccine hesitant” groups were open to changing their opinions once more data became available.The parents who remain opposed, said the researchers, were concerned about medical freedom and the vaccines’ safety.
COVID-19 data from Health Canada reports that children 0 to 11 years old are at an extremely low risk from the virus.
Data shows that 2,640 children 0 to 11 years old were hospitalized for COVID-19 in Canada, or 2% of all hospitalizations.
In addition, there were 19 deaths in this age range, making up 0.1% of deaths.
