Most Israeli Parents Won’t Give Their Kids The COVID-19 Vaccine

Most Israeli parents say they don’t plan to vaccinate their children against COVID-19. 

They are more concerned about the safety of vaccines (53.1 per cent) than the danger COVID-19 poses to children (37.9 per cent). 

A team of researchers at Bar Ilan University asked over 1,800 parents whether they would vaccinate their children, and if not, why not.

The study was conducted in November 2021, two weeks before the vaccine rollout in Israel for children aged five to 11. These vaccines have been available for kids for nearly a year, yet only around 20 per cent of Israeli children in this age range have been innoculated. 

Most parents who plan to vaccinate their children said they would do so to allow them to return to school and everyday life (89 per cent) rather than to protect them (55.9 per cent).

Parents over 35 were more likely to vaccinate than those under that age.

“Many parents don’t want to vaccinate their children because they don’t believe COVID-19 causes severe illness,” says Dr. Amiel Dror, of Bar-Ilan University’s Azrieli Faculty of Medicine and the Galilee Medical Center, who led the study.

“This data can assist health authorities in shaping educational and communication campaigns for vaccines to show parents, among other things, that COVID-19 can be dangerous to anyone.”

The authors of the study wrote: “Our findings suggest that, for COVID-19, the traditional perception of vaccination benefits such as protection against severe illness has been superseded by indirect benefits such as returning to regular societal life and education institutions, as well as assuring financial resilience for the family.

“While this finding is not surprising considering the severe disruption to normal life caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is not clear whether this perception of the societal utility of vaccines will continue to impact the perception of other vaccines beyond the pandemic.”

The survey additionally found that parents who had not been vaccinated themselves were less likely (13.1 per cent) to vaccinate their children than those who received three (61.8 per cent), two (48.2 per cent) or one (32 per cent) dose of the vaccine.

The study was published in the journal Human Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics.

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