1 in 4 Parents Say Their Children Have Been Quarantined Since School Started

FRIDAY, Oct. 1, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- One-quarter of U.S. parents report that their child has had to quarantine because of possible COVID-19 exposure since school started, a new poll reveals.

The nationally representative survey of 1,519 people conducted between Sept. 13 and Sept. 22 included 414 people who identified themselves as parents of children aged 17 years and younger. Still, about two-thirds of parents said they thought schools are taking appropriate measures to contain the spread of COVID-19.

In addition, the Kaiser Family Foundation report suggests that over time, parents of older children have slowly become more comfortable with the vaccine. About 48 percent of parents said that their children between the ages of 12 and 17 years had received at least one dose of the vaccine by September, an increase from the 41 percent reported in July.

The report also showed that parents of younger children were more likely to now say they would vaccinate their children. In July, the number who said they would get their children a shot as soon as they could was 26 percent compared to 34 percent now. Hesitation is also dropping, with 32 percent still saying they would "wait and see" compared with 40 percent in July.

What has not changed much are the parents who firmly say they will "definitely not" vaccinate their children. For children aged 12 to 17 years, this was 21 percent in September and just slightly more, 22 percent, in April. For children aged 5 to 11 years, this was 25 percent in July and 24 percent in September.

Parents also had differing views on mask wearing. About 18 percent of parents who had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine did not think schools should require all staff and students to wear masks, whereas 63 percent of unvaccinated parents felt that way, the findings showed. Among all parents, 58 percent said schools should have comprehensive mask mandates, 35 percent said there should be no mandates, and 4 percent felt that only unvaccinated students and staff should wear masks.

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