81% willing to have children aged 5-11 vaccinated against COVID-19: poll

A health worker in Vĩnh Phúc Province prepares a COVID-19 vaccine shot. — VNA/VnExpress News Photo Hoàng Hùng

HÀ NỘI — More than three quarters of adults said agree with vaccinating children aged between five and 11-years-old against COVID, according to a nationwide survey. 

Up to 81 per cent of people polled have no problems administering youngsters with the vaccine.

Of those questioned who have children in that age range, 80 per cent said they would bring their youngsters to have the inoculations.  

The survey was conducted in all 63 localities nationwide by the Social Opinion Institute under the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Information and Education.

Taking place between February 11-15, 387,037 people responded to the poll from all social classes and six socio-economic sectors.

It’s aim was to determine public willingness to have young children inoculated against COVID-19, after the country has achieved very high vaccine coverage rate in the 11-17 years age group.

Among people with children aged 5-11 years old, about the same rate as general response, 80 per cent are willing to bring their children to get the vaccines, 13 per cent showed hesitation or said they do not want to yet, four per cent said they are not ready, while 3 per cent said it’s difficult to answer at the moment.

The rates are largely about the same at the general public.

Among people with willingness, the majority (70 percent) explained that they hope that their children are vaccinated against COVID-19 to ensure their safety against the pandemic and avoid serious symptoms of the disease if they are infected.

At the same time, 78 per cent of people in general said that they “are very interested” in the scheme. The ratio is similar among parents having children aging from 5-11 years old (79 per cent). Meanwhile, 19 per cent said that they are “relatively interested” in the issue and only one per cent showed no interest.

Regarding the awareness of the necessity of COVID-19 vaccination among children aging 5-11, 78 per cent in general said that it is “very necessary and need to be conducted as soon as possible, and COVID-19 vaccination is similar to the injection of vaccines against other diseases like pertussis, tetanus, tuberculosis and measles.”

The ratio of such awareness among parents having children at the age of 5-11 was 76 per cent.

14 per cent in general and 15 per cent among the parents with children said COVID-19 vaccination is not necessary at the moment and more evaluation is needed on the effects of the vaccines on children based on other countries’ experience and international organisations’ recommendations, while 8 per cent in general and 9 per cent among the parents said they do not have sufficient information to answer or assess the matter.

The ratio of people “very confident” on the country’s capacity to control and push back the pandemic in the time to come is 72 per cent. The result is the highest among polls conducted since August 2021.

Việt Nam is planning to administer COVID-19 vaccines to children aged 5-11 using Pfizer/BioNTech shots and has already placed order for 21.9 million doses. — VnExpress News