Poll Finds Parents Split on Giving Kids COVID Shot as Pfizer Seeks Vaccine Use for Children

Pfizer is seeking to make its coronavirus vaccine available for young children, but a new poll found that parents are split on whether they'd get their kids inoculated against COVID-19.

The latest Axios/Ipsos survey shows that slightly more parents of children ages 5 to 11 said they were likely to vaccinate their kids when they become eligible for the shot. Forty-four percent are likely to do so, compared with 42 percent who are unlikely to get their child vaccinated.

The poll was conducted just after Pfizer's announcement that the first results from a trial indicated the COVID-19 vaccine is safe for children between 5 and 11 years and establishes a strong antibody response against the virus.

Pfizer and BioNTech said administering two doses 21 days apart was well tolerated by children, and the shots' side effects were comparable to those experienced by people between 16 and 25.

On Tuesday, the companies submitted data to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to clear the vaccine for use in children ages 5 to 11. A formal submission to request emergency use authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is expected to follow in the coming weeks, officials said in a news release.

Currently, the vaccine is available only to people ages 12 and over.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has previously said that "hopefully" vaccines will be made available to children ages 5 to 11 in the next few weeks.

"The FDA takes very seriously the importance of getting vaccines, shown to be safe and effective in children, to getting it into the arms of children," Fauci told MSNBC on Tuesday.

He continued, "The FDA, you never want to get ahead of their judgment, but I would imagine in the next few weeks they will examine that data and hopefully they'll give the OK so we can start vaccinating children hopefully before the end of October."

Overall, 57 percent of parents of children under 18 said they're likely to get their child vaccinated or have done so already.

The Axios/Ipsos survey also found that President Joe Biden is losing the public's trust on his handling of the coronavirus. Less than half of respondents, or 45 percent, said they trust Biden to provide accurate information about the virus—a decrease of 13 percentage points since he entered office in January.

Public trust in the federal government to relay accurate information also dropped, from 54 percent earlier this month to now just under half.

Axios/Ipsos surveyed 1,105 U.S. adults between September 24 and 27. The poll's margin of error is plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.