Parents not rushing to vaccinate children under 5 in Ottawa, Allegan counties

HOLLAND — More than one month afer the FDA authorization of Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for children as young as 6 months old, few parents in West Michigan have chosen to give their youngest family members the shot.

As of July 30, 701 Ottawa County under-5s had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, about 4 percent of the eligible population. This is a slightly higher rate than Michigan as a whole, which reports 2.9 percent of eligible under-5s have been vaccinated.

In Allegan County, 152 under-5s have received one dose, about 2 percent of the eligible population.

Vaccine makers Pfizer and Moderna received emergency-use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and a recommendation from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control on June 18. Pfizer received authorization for a three-dose vaccine for children 6 months old-4 years and Moderna received approval for a two-dose vaccine for children 6 months-5 years.

MDHHS’s chief medical executive Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian called the vaccine authorization for the youngest age group “a significant milestone that brings us hope and protects our littlest Michiganders,” in a press release announcing the authorization and recommending the vaccine for all eligible children under the age of 5, even those who have contracted COVID-19 before.

Some of the slow uptake in the youngest age groups may be due to timing and logistics, the health departments said: the announcement came during the summer, when schedules change and families leave town.

Local health departments are no longer holding clinics to vaccinate people en masse as they did for other age groups as each vaccine was authorized.

Ottawa County Department of Public Health and the Allegan County Health Department each said they encourage parents to contact their primary care doctors first to try to obtain the pediatric vaccine through a doctor’s office.

If they cannot get a COVID-19 vaccine from a health care provider, parents can schedule an appointment with the local health department for a COVID-19 vaccination.

“Currently, our vaccine clinic is by appointment only since demand has been relatively low,” said Liz Healy, public information officer for ACHD. “Appointments can be scheduled through the ACHD online scheduler or by calling 269-673-0205.”

Many parents, though, are hesitant or resistant to vaccinating their young children.

A Kaiser Family Foundation poll, conducted in May prior to the authorization of the vaccine, found 18 percent of parents of children under age 5 were eager to get their child vaccinated immediately, while 38 percent said they planned to “wait and see.” Another 27 percent said they would “definitely not” get their young child vaccinated and 11 percent said the would only if required.

A majority of parents surveyed by KFF said they did not have enough information about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine for that age group.

“That middle third who are doing the wait-and-see approach, I think that’s a really important audience to reach because I think that education can be really helpful, because that group is generally the group that is looking for information to help guide their decisions, so having that group understand the reasons for the vaccination and the safety of the vaccination is super important,” said Dr. Rosey Olivero, division chief of infectious disease at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital.