Account Login/Registration

Access KelownaNow using your Facebook account, or by entering your information below.


Facebook


OR


Register

Privacy Policy

COVID-19 motivating more parents to get their kids the flu shot, UBC study finds

A new study from the University of British Columbia suggests the COVID-19 pandemic may be motivating more parents to get their children a seasonal flu vaccine.

Published in the Journal of Pediatrics last week, the study surveyed 3,000 families from Canada, the United States, Japan, Israel, Spain and Switzerland.

The researchers found that 54% of parents planned to vaccinate their children — up 16 percentage points from the previous year.

The study determined parents were more likely to get their child the flu shot if they thought there was potential for the child to catch COVID-19, and if their child was already up-to-date on other vaccinations.

Dr. Ran Goldman, the study’s lead author, notes that public health officials around the world are concerned about the potentially harmful combination of COVID-19 and flu season.

<who> Photo credit: Canadian Press

In a phone interview with The Canadian Press, Goldman says immunizing children will be “critical” in protecting the population from both infections.

He said his team was “very encouraged” by the results of the study, but still would like to see a slightly higher proportion of parents willing to give their children the flu shot.

Goldman said the magic threshold for a vaccine to be highly effective is about 70%.

Although he believes that goal can be reached, Goldman said the media and the scientific community must work harder to help dispel myths and disinformation about vaccine use.

“Vaccination is the world’s greatest public health achievement,” Goldman said, stressing the impact vaccines have had on global mortality rates over the last century.

“If we reach 70 to 80% of the population — not even 100% — I’d be really thrilled.”



If you get value from KelownaNow and believe local independent media is important to our community we ask that you please consider subscribing to our daily newsletter.

If you appreciate what we do, we ask that you consider supporting our local independent news platform.


Send your comments, news tips, typos, letter to the editor, photos and videos to news@kelownanow.com.



Weather
webcam icon

weather-icon
Fri
12℃

weather-icon
Sat
12℃

weather-icon
Sun
14℃

weather-icon
Mon
16℃

weather-icon
Tue
20℃

weather-icon
Wed
11℃

current feed webcam icon

Recent Livestream




Top Stories

Follow Us

Follow us on Instagram Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Follow us on Linkedin Follow us on Youtube Listen on Soundcloud Follow Our TikTok Feed Follow Our RSS Follow Our pinterest Feed
Follow Our Newsletter
Privacy Policy