Advertisement
UK markets closed
  • NIKKEI 225

    40,168.07
    -594.66 (-1.46%)
     
  • HANG SENG

    16,541.42
    +148.58 (+0.91%)
     
  • CRUDE OIL

    83.11
    +1.76 (+2.16%)
     
  • GOLD FUTURES

    2,254.80
    +42.10 (+1.90%)
     
  • DOW

    39,807.37
    +47.29 (+0.12%)
     
  • Bitcoin GBP

    56,023.04
    +1,384.54 (+2.53%)
     
  • CMC Crypto 200

    885.54
    0.00 (0.00%)
     
  • NASDAQ Composite

    16,379.46
    -20.06 (-0.12%)
     
  • UK FTSE All Share

    4,338.05
    +12.12 (+0.28%)
     

YF POLL: 70% say they will not vaccinate their child if FDA approved

Viewers weigh in on the impending approval for the Covid-19 vaccine for kids.

Video transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

AKIJO FUJITA: In today's Hot Takes, our Twitter poll for the week. And Zack, we knew this was going to be a heated debate. We asked our viewers specifically, when the FDA approves the Pfizer COVID vaccine for children under 12, will you vaccinate your child? And we got a lot of responses on that one.

Let's show you the results here. 70% voting no, 30% saying yes. And no surprise, Zack, a lot of people weighing in about the concerns about just how much data is available about the safety of vaccine for kids. And we got a lot of people who said, look, I vaccinated myself. I was fine with that but I'm not quite comfortable in vaccinating my child yet.

ADVERTISEMENT

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah. And it's an interesting discussion for us to be having, Akiko. Neither of us have kids, so there is you know, I'm putting myself into the shoes of parents here. And you know, just kind of given what we've heard from some of those people before. And keep in mind, obviously, as we were discussing with the president there of one of America's largest teachers unions, vaccines have been around for a long time.

Particularly on the mRNA front, though with Pfizer and Moderna, I have heard from people who are kind of more skeptical of how quickly these vaccines were approved. And again, not my position, but in that camp it does seem like those people tend to lean more on the traditional vaccine technology here that you might find in a Johnson & Johnson vaccine. So I don't know whether or not, you know, we could dig deeper into this data here and say which one might you be more comfortable with. But overall, all of the parents here that we're hearing from on Twitter kind of talking about it is a different decision for me getting vaccinated versus my kid or my son or daughter getting vaccinated because there are health concerns that I need to think about for them. And of course, that's why it's taken longer for I guess, the research to get caught up to what we've seen with adults.

AKIJO FUJITA: Let's show some of those responses because we did get quite a few in response to the question that we put out through the poll. Jim Wade here says, "Before making this decision, I must consider my child's health problems, even if there is a 1,000th chance." And then we had somebody else here saying, "The risks for children, as far as we know, are much higher for the vaccine than the virus. My daughter is 4. Am I willing to risk a heart condition so she doesn't get a virus she has a 99.99% chance of surviving? No." And then she goes on to say, "I'm vaccinated for the record."

And of course, I'm going to leave it to our health reporter Anjalee Khemlani to talk specifically about the science behind vaccines and how safe it is for kids. But I think that tweet specifically points to how a lot of parents are feeling right now, saying, you know, I'm willing to put-- you know, get vaccinated myself but if it is for my child, it better be 100% safe. And Zack, to the point that Randi Weingarten made earlier, there's still a lot of information out there that has to be debunked. And it feels like over the last year the disinformation that's been out there about the vaccine specifically window was rolled out for adults, you know, some of those concerns that percolated as a result have carried over into this stage too. And while some people may get a little more comfortable with the vaccination themselves, with kids, you know, I get the sense from this poll at least that the verdict is still out.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah. And I mean, you know, we've heard kind of a lot of questions that still remain unanswered when it comes to the data around why exactly-- you know, we've talked about it in adults-- you know, why it makes sense to get vaccinated because you're trying to reduce transmission there. And obviously, that was the population that looked to be most susceptible to the disease and all of this is kind of targeted to stop hospitalizations and deaths, right? And that's what we're trying to do with this vaccine push.

And so you know, you look at the risk factors here and transmission factors, which is often overlooked in terms of why kids would be vaccinated here. And it's all very interesting discussion and a lot of data still I guess to be seen there. But of course, we're still waiting for the overall approval here from the FDA to get those shots out to kids so still you know, time to see what comes through on that front.

But I think the longer it takes, there is still the question of what the WHO thinks about this getting across the globe, whether you should prioritize kids again. We've seen that kind of all spectrums in this debate. But we'll see what happens.

AKIJO FUJITA: And of course, all this means that a lot of families with young kids are still at a standstill. Even though a lot of us have resumed activities, if your kids aren't vaccinated, you still can't continue life as normal just yet. We're, of course, going to continue to bring you any updates on that front.