The heads of some of America’s largest professional health care associations are urging parents to get their children vaccinated against COVID-19, as part of a new advertising push by the Biden administration to persuade millions of families that have yet to do so.
The ads — a pair of 60-second spots titled “Oath” and “Trust” – feature pleas from Dr. Gerald Harmon, president of the American Medical Association; Dr. Moira Szilagyi, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics; Ernest Grant, president of the American Nurses Association; and Dr. Ada Stewart, chair of the board of the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Both spots are slated to run on social media as soon as Thursday, as well as on television screens starting next week.
“We took an oath to do what’s best for our patients. So we want you to know we trust the COVID vaccine. For ourselves, for our patients, for our kids. So should you,” the group says in the ad.
The new ads come as the pace of new vaccinations has slowed nationwide for two straight months to record lows, even though more than 57 million eligible Americans are still unvaccinated. Only about three in 10 of all first doses given over the past two weeks were administered to children.
Watch the ad here https://youtu.be/9xbFE6eXTJI
Compared to their vaccinated peers, CDC data through January suggests that rates of COVID-19 hospitalizations were three times higher in unvaccinated children 5-11 years old and two times higher in unvaccinated children 12-15 years old.
Recent studies published by the agency have found middling effectiveness from two shots against curbing urgent care visits or infections during the Omicron wave, though adolescents with a booster shot fared significantly better.
“Like you, there’s nothing more important to me than keeping our kids safe. What’s not safe is getting COVID,” the group says in the ad.
For months, federal health officials have touted their efforts to persuade hesitant families as the pool of children eligible for COVID-19 vaccines expanded.
The administration says an array of previous advertisements have reached 9 in 10 adults nationwide more than 20 times on average, citing data from Nielsen. Through programs like the “COVID-19 Community Corps“ or millions of dollars awarded to organizations, the campaign has also tapped thousands of Americans to conduct outreach to promote the vaccine.
But more than four months since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention first recommended the vaccine for children as young as five, just over a quarter of kids 5-11 years old have received both shots. Close to two-thirds of children 12-17 years old are fully vaccinated. The youngest of that group have been able to get the shots since last May.
The latest data from CDC surveys suggest around 20% of parents will probably get their children vaccinated or are unsure. The share of parents who “probably or definitely will not” get the shots has climbed, up from 21% in October to 24%.
But efforts to persuade parents has proven challenging, given the initial reluctance of many parents themselves, he said, or unfounded reservations over its safety. A survey from June 2021 found that 12.1% of parents who were hesitant to get vaccinated planned to have their children immunized after the shots became available. Since then, close to nine in 10 of all adults have now received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
“This is a perfect opportunity to get it, while things are a little bit on the lull side, to get vaccinated. To go ahead and be protected just in case we have another variant that tries to rear its ugly head,” said Stewart.
Source: CBS News. Read the full article here https://www.cbsnews.com/news/we-trust-the-covid-vaccine-say-heads-of-top-medical-groups-in-plea-to-parents/
