Over 25 percent of young Canadian children eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccines did not get vaccinated because of parental concerns, says a recent report by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC).
“Monitoring parental attitudes is essential to predict expected vaccine uptake and to guide education and awareness efforts to promote vaccination,” said the report, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.
The report, titled “2022 Childhood Covid-19 Immunization Coverage Survey,” found that 26 percent of eligible children under 12 went unvaccinated.
The majority of parents who refused to have their children vaccinated against COVID said they were concerned that “not enough research on the vaccine has been done in children,” with many also saying they were worried about “the safety of Covid-19 vaccines and side effects.”
The findings were based on questionnaires completed by over 10,000 parents across the country, and PHAC paid Edmonton-based company Advanis Incorporated nearly $250,000 for the research.
As of October 2022, only 6.5 percent of children aged 0 to 4 had received at least one vaccine dose and only 1 percent had completed their primary vaccination series.
Vaccines
Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam acknowledged in November 2022 that vaccine uptake for Canada’s youngest children had remained low despite different shots being approved by Health Canada.“That can certainly be improved,” she told reporters.
“We need to provide parents and certainly health-care providers that they engage with the necessary information so that they can make that choice to get children vaccinated.”
However, she noted that observations had shown that a low rate of Canada’s youngest children suffered “a severe outcome from COVID-19.”
“But at the same time when there’s lots and lots of infections, that can still result in a much larger number of children then getting seriously sick enough to get hospitalized,” she added.
Some Canadian doctors have spoken out against COVID vaccination for children in light the possibility of yet-unknown long-term side effects.
In October 2021, Alberta physician Daniel Nagase spoke at a rally in Edmonton against vaccination mandates, saying cancer could be the result down the road for children who are vaccinated for COVID.
“Kids get all sorts of viruses, I know what to do, in fact, most parents know what to do,” Nagase said at the rally, according to LifeSiteNews.
“It takes 20 years to find out whether some new injection causes cancer or not. I’m just an emergency doctor. I know what to do about a virus, I don’t know what to do about cancer.”
