Parents’ vaccine hesitancy is “understandable”

Vaccinations opened for the 5-11 age group earlier this month.

According to a new poll, 70 percent of parents with young children have a positive attitude towards vaccinating their children.

Of these, 62 percent said their main motivation for vaccinating their young children was to protect the children, while 28 percent said they did it to help protect the community as a whole. The rest had various other reasons.

Of the 30 percent who reported being hesitant on the matter, 40 percent said it was unnecessary, 38 percent were undecided, 16 percent expressed concern about possible adverse effects of the vaccine and the rest had various other reasons.

Safe but perhaps not very effective

It is understandable that some parents are hesitating to get their young children vaccinated, according to Absalon Eysturoy, a paediatrician at the National Hospital.

“If you had asked me a couple of weeks ago when the Delta variant was dominant, I would say that the vaccines are effective for the entire population,” he says.

“However, since Omicron entered the country, we have not had sufficient evidence to prove that the vaccines provide strong protection for young children against this new variant.”

He adds, however, that all evidence suggests the vaccines are safe, even for young children, with only minor side effects and very few serious side effects.

“We should continue to vaccinate adults, but perhaps we need a bit more data before we can start insisting that all young children should be vaccinated.”

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The doctor believes that not enough attention is being paid to how the pandemic is affecting young people socially and mentally.

“Not a lot of research is being carried out on this topic, but there are indications that these prolonged Covid restrictions have a negative effect on young people’s social lives.”

It is important, he adds, that we do not impose too many restrictions even though some young people do not get vaccinated.

“If we focus primarily on protecting our vulnerable population, it should be possible to allow a certain degree of freedom for young people and their parents.”

For further information about Covid-19 in the Faroes, including daily figures, visit corona.fo.

Read the Faroese version of this article here.

Translated by prosa.fo.

More Faroese News in English.