Jul 20, 2021 - Health
Coronavirus vaccine resistance higher among mothers than fathers
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Mothers — particularly young ones — are still much more reluctant than fathers to the idea of getting their children vaccinated against the coronavirus, per a new report by the COVID States Project.
The big picture: Vaccine resistance among parents has decreased across most demographic groups since last winter, but there are still wide gaps between parents of different ages and genders.
What they found: Young mothers and mothers with young children are particularly resistant to the idea of vaccinating their kids or having schools mandate vaccines for in-person attendance.
- Support overall for school vaccine mandates has grown to 61% since the winter, but Americans who are more liberal, educated, higher-income and urban are still more likely to support them.
- Black Americans have become significantly less reluctant to vaccinate their children over time, and overall resistance levels among Black, white and Hispanic parents are now about the same. Resistance is lowest among Asian Americans.
- Specifically among Democrats, however, Black Americans are much more likely to say they're extremely unlikely to vaccine their kids.
The intrigue: The report found a gender gap between all racial and ethnic groups.
- The largest is among white parents. This summer, 10% of white fathers said that they'd be extremely unlikely to vaccinate their children if it was available, compared with 28% of white mothers.
