A study conducted by the Social Policy Institute at Washington University in St. Louis shows that among surveyed parents in Israel, only 37 percent intended to vaccinate their child (aged 5-11) against COVID-19 when the option became available, while 23 percent of parents were undecided and 40 percent had no intention to vaccinate their children.

Unlike COVID-19 vaccination among adults, where the uptake rate varies among population groups, intention to vaccinate children varies much less, from 34 percent among ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) and traditional Jews to 40 percent among secular Jews.

Child age, however, appears to make a difference in parents’ decision on vaccination. As children’s age increases, parents are more likely to intend to vaccinate them. Accordingly, intention to vaccinate children rises from 30 percent for children aged 5 up to 46 percent for 11-year-old children. Child gender on the other hand, does not matter.

The findings also suggest that parents who oppose child vaccinations against COVID-19 do not oppose vaccinations on principle. Even among parents who are vaccinated themselves against COVID-19, the majority are either still undecided or not intending to vaccinate their children against COVID-19, as only 42 percent of parents claim that they intend to vaccinate their children. Furthermore, previous vaccination of a child is also not an indicator of intention to vaccinate them against COVID-19; only 40 percent of parents who gave their children all their infant and toddler vaccinations on time intend to give them the COVID-19 vaccine as well.

Since Israel was one of the first countries in the world to vaccinate its population, its pandemic experience has become a test case for the other countries to learn from. Israeli vaccination rate declines created by vaccine hesitancy have been early warning signals to other countries that having a sufficient supply of COVID-19 vaccines is just the first barrier to vaccine uptake.

Although child vaccination against COVID-19 started in Israel very recently (on November 22, 2021) and a few weeks after the U.S., uptake rates in the U.S. and Israel are quite similar, as two-thirds of American parents of children aged 5 to 11 are either reluctant or adamantly opposed to children’s vaccination against COVID-19. That is, the need for the authorities to increase the proportion of vaccinated children is common to both countries. Moreover, the public’s wish for more transparency, and the significant effect better transparency can have on COVID-19 vaccine uptake, is also common to more nations including the U.S.

Read the full article about lessons from Israel's COVID-19 vaccination process for children by Oren Heller, Yaniv Shlomo, and Michal Grinstein-Weiss at Brookings.