After a long wait, it’s still a struggle to get young kids vaccinated against COVID

The headlines are blaring once again about COVID vaccine hesitancy, lifting up a new Kaiser Family Foundation survey that found that 40 percent of parents don’t plan to vaccinate their children under 5 years old. By focusing attention on that group of parents, they’re leaving out a critical part of this story. After anxiously waiting for vaccines to become available for young children, most parents are eager to vaccinate our kids against COVID-19. Despite those years of experience with this pandemic, United States public health and health care institutions are leaving parents struggling to navigate a frustrating and confusing process. 

I’m a white, highly educated researcher who studies health care access and is on the faculty of a medical school. Before becoming a researcher, I spent five years working at a community health center helping people access needed health care. I’ve successfully navigated vaccine scheduling for myself, my older child, and other friends and family. Even with all of this knowledge and privilege, it’s been very challenging to get my young child vaccinated.

As the Kaiser Family Foundation survey notes, many parents are confused about the details of vaccination and don’t know where to get a vaccine for their kids. They have concerns about having to take time off work for their kids to be vaccinated, and about getting the shots from a trusted provider. Despite many rounds of vaccine approval and distribution for other age groups, vaccine distribution seemed disorganized and unclear in the days after the drawn-out federal approval process for children under five. A few days after vaccines for this group were approved, I stopped by a drop-in COVID vaccine clinic run by my local public health department at the neighborhood library. They said they wouldn’t have doses for this age group for a couple of weeks and didn’t suggest anywhere else to go.

I spent a couple more days searching for appointments, using state and federal find-a-vaccine websites. These were several days behind in acknowledging that vaccines were approved, then didn’t have any local appointment availability. My employer had a 45-minute wait time when I called to try and schedule an appointment. My child’s primary care provider didn’t update their website for at least a week to acknowledge the approval of vaccines for young kids.

After a few days of fruitless searching, a fellow parent (also white, highly educated, with good health care access) mentioned that her kids’ pediatricians’ office not only had COVID vaccine doses but was scheduling appointments via text, open to anyone. I easily scheduled the appointment and brought my 4-year-old that weekend for his first dose. It was well-organized with an outdoor waiting area and stickers and small toys for kids after vaccination. We ran into two friends. It was quick and easy, I didn’t have to take off work, and they offered follow-up appointments for the second dose. Information about this clinic wasn’t available anywhere I was looking, even though it was open to the public. This office had somehow received vaccines weeks before our public health department. 

Over a month later, vaccine access continues to be disorganized and hard to navigate—despite all we have learned from vaccination of adults and older children. My child’s second dose came due while we were traveling across the country to visit family. In an attempt to find him a timely second dose of the Moderna vaccine, I have tried find-a-vaccine websites in two different states, gone back to the federal site, called two local health care organizations, navigated scheduling websites at six pharmacy chains and called the closest one on the phone, and attempted to schedule at a drop-in site where some other friends took their kids. So far we’ve had no luck. Each of these has said that my child is not eligible, or they don’t have doses, or they are closed for the week, or they haven’t returned my phone calls. My child’s primary care provider emailed offering COVID vaccine appointments but then wouldn’t let me schedule one online. When I emailed, they said they didn’t have Moderna vaccines and didn’t recommend anywhere else to go. Luckily, the pediatric office where my child got the first dose texted me as I was writing this to schedule an appointment for his second dose, a couple of weeks late. 

I’m confident that I’ll get my kid vaccinated soon. But I know that many parents will give up if their initial attempts aren’t successful, because they’re busy, overwhelmed, not fluent in English, or have concerns about vaccination and can’t easily access someone who they would trust to care for their children. Federal, state and local public health departments should recommit to collaboration with trusted community organizations and primary care providers to make COVID vaccination easier for parents of young children and people of all ages. They can make vaccination easy by offering it with and without appointments at places where people already go: schools, daycares, parks, libraries, spiritual communities, grocery stores, and medical offices. All of these agencies have a responsibility to do proactive outreach to families, making sure that every family of young children who wants to vaccinate can do so before the new school year begins.

Ariana Thompson-Lastad, PhD is a medical sociologist and an Assistant Professor at the University of California San Francisco, Department of Family and Community Medicine and Osher Center for Integrative Health.