More than 75 per cent of Aussie parents likely to vaccinate their children against Covid-19

Aussie parents are overwhelmingly in favour of giving their kids the Covid-19 jab – even for children as young as 12 months.

A new study has found almost four-in-five parents say they intend to get their children inoculated against the virus if a safe and effective vaccine becomes available for kids.

Researchers from the Australian National University surveyed more than 3000 Australians parents and caregivers with children aged 0 to 18.

The researchers found 42.5 per cent of parents/carers would “definitely” get their children vaccinated, while another 36.3 per cent said they “probably” would.

Despite the majority of caregivers being decidedly pro-vaccine, a notable section of the study remained very hesitant about giving jabs to under 18s.

Almost one-in-10 of parents and carers told researchers they “definitely wouldn’t” get their children vaccinated, while another 11.4 per cent said they “probably wouldn’t”.

Head author of the study, Social Sciences Researcher Nicholas Biddle, said the results provided important insights about vaccine attitudes among parents for the government to consider when planning any future vaccine rollout for Aussie children.

“People have been worried about long Covid among children who get the virus or the role of children in spreading the virus among households and in the community,” Professor Biddle said.

“These findings show the vast majority of Australians are ready to make sure their children are protected from Covidas soon as vaccines are available to them.”

Significant concerns exist about instances of prolonged Covid-19 symptoms in children, but researchers are yet to determine exactly how frequently and severely this occurs.

Parents backgrounds appeared to influence their decision on vaccines.

“We found vaccination rates are lower for Australians who have relatively low levels of education, those who speak a language other than English, those who live outside of NSW and those who have low household income,” Professor Biddle said.

And while speaking a language other than English made an individual “significantly and substantially less likely to have been vaccinated”, there was no statistical difference between people born within Australia and those born overseas.

“This suggests that it is a language a person speaks rather than where they are born that determines the likelihood of being vaccinated,” Professor Biddle said.

While concerns about vaccine side effects remain the largest driver of jab hesitancy, Professor Biddle highlighted that these sentiments were on the decline among Aussie adults.

“Not only are far more people getting vaccinated, but the unvaccinated appear to be less hesitant than they were at the start of the year,” he said.

No brand of Covid-19 vaccine has currently been approved by the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) for safe use in children under 16, and kids in that age group remain ineligible for the jab at this stage.