Attitudes of parents with children aged 12-18 to COVID-19 vaccines for themselves and their children.

BACKGROUND: The incidence of vaccine hesitancy is increasing in many countries. This study aims to determine parents` attitudes and related factors regarding COVID-19 vaccine acceptance for themselves and their children aged 12-18. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on parents between 16th November and 31st December 2021, after COVID-19 vaccines were initiated for children in Türkiye. In the survey, the sociodemographic characteristics of the parents, whether they and their children were vaccinated against COVID-19, and if not, the reasons for this were asked. Multivariate binary logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the factors affecting parents` refusal to vaccinate their children for COVID-19. RESULTS: Three hundred and ninety-six mothers and fathers were included in the final analysis. Overall, 41.7% of parents reported vaccine refusal for their children. COVID-19 vaccine refusal was higher in mothers younger than 35 (ß = 6.5, p = 0.002, 95% CI: 2.0-23.1), children aged 15 and younger (ß = 2.3, p = 0.001, 95% CI: 1.4-3.7). Concerns about the side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine (29.7%) and their children not wanting to be vaccinated (29.0%) were the most common causes of COVID-19 vaccine refusal. CONCLUSIONS: In the present study, the rate of children not vaccinated due to COVID-19 vaccine refusal was relatively high. Parents` concerns about vaccine side effects, as well as their children`s unwillingness to be vaccinated, suggest that both parents and adolescents should be informed about the importance of COVID-19 vaccines.

The Effect of Measles, Rubella, Mumps, Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B IgG Seropositivity on The Clinical Course of COVID-19 Disease in Children: Journal of Pediatric Infection

According to the preliminary report by the Chinese Disease Control and Prevention Center, most of the patients affected were aged between 30-79, and there were few patients aged under 19 (2). Since most of the studies are centered around adult patients, the reason why children have a mild course of the disease is still vague. Immunity differences, level of inflammatory response, T-lymphocyte profile, the expression level of angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE 2), the level of melatonin secretion, less exposure to environmental pollutants, less presence of chronic diseases, and cross immunity developed to other viruses have been indicated among the possible reasons debated on the subject in relevant articles (6-8). [...]it has been argued that non-specific effect of attenuated live vaccines such as Bacillus-Calmette-Guerin (BCG) and Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR) might have a mitigating effect on COVID-19 clini-cal findings (9). Materials and Methods The study included cases whose reverse transcrip-tase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) detected positive for SARS-CoV-2 virus with the Bio-speedy SARS CoV-2 double gene RT-qPCR kit (Bioeksen-Turkey) on combined oropharyn-geal-nasopharyngeal swab sample in our hospital between March 2020 and June 2020.