Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

Show NLP summaries collection recirc on article pages

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Biden and Trump agree to CNN debate in June, ABC faceoff in September

Biden’s false claim that inflation was 9 percent when he took office

Election 2024 latest news: Key Senate matchups set for November in Maryland, West Virginia

The new dining reality: Smaller groups and shorter weeks

Nasim Nuñez’s heads-up base running helps Nats get doubleheader split

The 26 best new restaurants in the D.C. area

States see legalized sports betting as a tax windfall — but at what cost?

Haiti’s plight is a case study in the ‘responsibility to protect’

No, Apple, people do not want tech to crush everything in its path 

Carolyn Hax: Aging mom’s increasing anxiety robs child of a valued confidante

Our kids are growing up and pulling away. My husband is offended.

Ask Amy: My mom lied about how much she supported my sister

Did Obamacare ‘massively’ increase the cost of health care?

RFK Jr.’s ‘history lesson’ on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine flunks the fact test

When hotels go to the (Westminster) dogs

Tired of overcrowded national parks? Here’s how to go backcountry camping.

Airlines are trying to stop Biden from enforcing ‘junk fees’ rule

For Netanyahu, Gaza’s ‘day after’ must wait

Enough mediating. America should deploy its might against Hamas.

Biden advances $1 billion in arms for Israel amid Rafah tensions 

Puppy abandoned with heart-rending note is adopted, named Minerva

Man, 91, shocks tiny firehouse with $500K gift: ‘Nobody knew how much I’d saved’

Retired cop meets abandoned baby he helped 23 years ago: ‘What are the odds?’

Even remote and hybrid work can burn you out. Here’s how to avoid it.

Senators unveil plan to regulate AI, as companies race ahead

Google’s AI answers could come back to bite it

Look to the cloud to protect the life documents saved on your computer

Can you spot bad financial advice on TikTok? Take our quiz.

5 myths about Social Security as the program faces a funding crisis

How America tried and failed to stay White

En búsqueda de la verdad a más de 100 años de una matanza fronteriza

D.C.’s secret garden

Angela Alsobrooks Wins Maryland Senate Seat 

Health

Well+Being

Opinions

Higher Education

Education

https://www.washingtonpost.com/coronavirus/

Coronavirus pandemic

Healthy living, including food, fitness, longevity and mental health

See more coverage in your recommendations

See alerts for Health and Wellness developments

Health & wellness

Tips on living better delivered every Thursday

Well+Being newsletter

Health alerts

Health & Science alerts

Bill O'Leary

In June, when the Food and Drug Administration <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/06/18/cdc-coronavirus-vaccine-young-children/">authorized emergency use of coronavirus vaccines</a> for children younger than 5, physicians expected apprehension among parents — after all, 4 in 10 parents with young children said they would definitely not get their youngsters vaccinated, according to a July Kaiser Family Foundation survey.

But doctors and public health experts never expected there would be this little interest in vaccines for young children.

Even in places with strong pro-vaccine sentiments, few young children have received shots, including in the District, which has the highest percentage vaccinated. In D.C., barely 21 percent of children 6 months to 4 years old have received one shot, and just 7.5 percent have received both doses, according to<a href="https://data.cdc.gov/Vaccinations/COVID-19-Vaccination-Age-and-Sex-Trends-in-the-Uni/5i5k-6cmh"> the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention</a>.

In Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi — which occupy the bottom of the list — the rates are even more dismal: less than 0.2 percent. Health officials worry that the lackluster vaccination uptake might leave the nation vulnerable to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/coronavirus/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">coronavirus</a> clusters in the fall and winter.

Just under <a href="https://data.cdc.gov/Vaccinations/COVID-19-Vaccination-Age-and-Sex-Trends-in-the-Uni/5i5k-6cmh" target=_blank>325,000 young children are fully vaccinated </a>nationwide, according to the CDC. While some parents blame a lack of access, experts believe misinformation surrounding the shots for younger children is driving vaccine hesitancy.

Peter Hotez, an infectious-disease physician and pediatrician at the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, said he’d hoped vaccination rates would improve as the months went by, but they remain stagnant.

“I thought maybe it was just the summer, and people were traveling,” Hotez said.

Nationwide, vaccination rates with a single dose increase with the age of children. Children younger than 5 have a 6 percent single-dose vaccination rate; for children 5 to 11, it’s six times as high, at 38 percent; and 12-to-17-year-olds have the highest vaccination rates among youths, at 70 percent.

The low vaccination rates among the youngest children reflect inadequate communications about the shots, according to Hotez.

“We haven’t done a good job explaining the long-term developmental consequences of long covid for younger children,” Hotez said. “And future coronavirus variants are a very likely possibility.”

From March 2020 to June 2022, 1.9 million children ages 1 to 4 tested positive for the coronavirus and 202 died. These numbers are low compared with the data on deaths among adults: Since the dawn of the pandemic, covid has killed more than 1 million U.S. adults. Still, scientists remain concerned about the enduring consequences of children being infected with the coronavirus, saying there is not enough data to determine whether children will develop long-term issues from a single coronavirus infection or multiple infections.

Zachary Rubin, a pediatric allergist and immunologist in Illinois, said the death of even one child from an illness that could be prevented by a vaccine should be reason enough for parents to vaccinate their children. He said there needs to be more concern among parents about the long-term effects of the virus in younger children, such as brain fog and disorders involving smell — symptoms that are harder to diagnose.

“An infant or toddler won’t be able to tell you if they’ve had fatigue or constant headaches, so you wouldn’t know if something was lingering even when the obvious physical symptoms subsided,” Rubin said.

Parents’ hesitation about vaccination comes against a backdrop of eroding trust in public health guidance. A 2021 Harvard study found that many Americans are concerned about how public health institutions function. In the <a href="https://cdn1.sph.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/94/2021/05/RWJF-Harvard-Report_FINAL-051321.pdf">past decade</a>, the public health system has experienced a decline in positive ratings.

Megan C., a New Jersey mother who spoke on the condition that her last name be withheld because of concerns about her family business, has children ages 8 and 3. She said her decision not to vaccinate her son and daughter doesn’t stem from a political movement. Instead, she said, it reflects her lack of trust in the health-care system.

“I’m not doing this because it’s a mom movement right now of, ‘You know what? I’m standing up to big pharma and not vaccinating my children.’ Absolutely not,” she said. “I’m doing it because in the past, the health-care system has failed me horribly.”

The choice to not vaccinate her children was personal for Megan — a decision she thinks all parents should be able to make based on their own family’s needs.

“I don’t care what [other parents] choose. They’re your kids. And I wanted the same choice for my family,” she said.

Some parents lament the failure to sufficiently promote vaccines for younger children. When the FDA announced the shots would be available, Rachel Devore, a New York mom of sons ages 6 and 3, said she didn’t get any notice from her children’s doctors.

“My pediatricians never approached me — I was the one who called them the day after I heard that the vaccines came out,” Devore said. They weren’t apprehensive about vaccinating her children, she said, but they weren’t as forthcoming as she thought they would be.

Devore said many of her friends weren’t aware the vaccines for children younger than 5 were authorized by the FDA until they found out from social media.

“After I posted that I had gotten my boys the vaccine, a mom I am friends with on Facebook reached out to me saying that she didn’t know the vaccines were available and thanked me for posting about it,” Devore said.

Rubin, the pediatrician, said he wishes there had been more robust promotion of vaccines by public health officials across platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

“I don’t see a strong presence from governing agencies to promote for kids under 5 and to debunk these myths,” he said.

That scant messaging stands in stark contrast to when the coronavirus vaccines first came to market in December 2020 for adults. The cry then: “Get the shot.” The messaging was strong and in-your-face.

Politicians including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/coronavirus-congress-vaccine-supreme-court/2020/12/17/ad7a8446-40bc-11eb-8db8-395dedaaa036_story.html">were pictured getting their shots,</a> the phrase <a href="https://asm.org/Podcasts/TWiV/Episodes/Fauci-ouchy-TWiV-717">“Fauci ouchy”</a> was coined, and posters were <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/08/24/vaccine-ad-targeting-covid/">plastered at bus stops</a> in cities everywhere. The priority was immediate and dire. But now, 2½ years into the pandemic, the urgency surrounding vaccinations for children under 5 has seemingly cooled.

“The messaging has been insufficient,” said Kimberlee Wyche-Etheridge, a pediatrician and senior vice president of health equity and diversity initiatives with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. “Once the country got into covid overload, there was a step back in the importance of vaccinations once our youngest children were eligible for the vaccines.”

A more robust drive from local public health authorities could boost vaccination rates, said Ankhi Dutta, a pediatric infectious-disease specialist at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine. As time has passed, physicians face another issue: The waning fear surrounding the coronavirus has made people more “comfortable with having covid.”

“Parents need information from someone they can trust, and that person should be their family practice provider,” Dutta said.

The American Academy of Pediatrics strongly urges parents to vaccinate their children, but pediatricians said access has been an issue. Unlike adult vaccines offered at pharmacy giants such as CVS and Walgreens, children younger than 18 months must get their shots from a pediatrician. CVS’s MinuteClinic administers the shots only to children 18 months and older. Children ages 3 and up can get vaccinated at Walgreens. In many cases, parents of children younger than 5 have to make appointments with their pediatricians.

Physicians in <a href="https://account.miamiherald.com/paywall/subscriber-only?resume=262807233&amp;intcid=ab_archive" target="_blank">Florida</a> and <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/08/07/metro/it-feels-yucky-pediatricians-say-theyre-discarding-vaccine-doses-youngest-amid-lack-demand/" target="_blank">Massachusetts</a> report having to discard vaccine doses because of lack of demand, according to reports in the Miami Herald and the Boston Globe.

“Any vaccine that is wasted is a vaccine that’s available for someone who may need it to stay healthy,” Wyche-Etheridge said.

Anecdotally, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/17/covid-vaccine-under-five-parents-hesitation/" target=_blank>vaccine hesitancy</a> among parents seems to be driven, in part, by this calculation: How does the rare chance of death from the virus compare with the rare prospect of a significant vaccine-related complication?

“We can’t blame parents for being fearful of doing this,” said Samira Armin, a pediatrician from Houston who urges parents to get their kids vaccinated. “They feel like they are protecting their children, but they should also be [aware] they could be making a choice of their child getting covid multiple times, which has been shown to have negative and cumulative consequences on their future health.”

Armin said reactions to vaccines — including headaches, muscle pain or chills — happen within a few days of receiving the shot. So, if a child is going to get one of these side effects, a parent will know shortly.

“It’s like having three glasses of wine; you’re either going to have a hangover the next day or not. The hangover won’t show up three weeks later,” Armin said.

New York University, MA in journalism

University at Buffalo, BA in English

Sabrina Malhi joined The Washington Post in 2020. She focuses on breaking news as well as infant and maternal health issues. Sabrina previously served as the president of the South Asian Journalists Association and still holds a position on its board. 