Rural parents worry most about kids' coronavirus vax, but urban and suburban parents have become more worried

Percentage of parents who said they had "major concerns" about vaccinating their children against Covid-19 because of various factors (Covid States Project chart; click the image to enlarge it.)

Pfizer has sought Food and Drug Administration approval for its coronavirus vaccine for children between the ages of 5 and 11. But even if Pfizer gets the green light, the progress of children's vaccinations will depend highly on whether parents want their offspring to be vaccinated. A new report says rural parents had more concerns about such vaccinations, but that suburban and urban parents have narrowed the gap since June as their concerns grew.

The report comes from The Covid States Project, a joint effort of Harvard, Northeastern, Northwestern, and Rutgers universities. Researchers surveyed more than 21,000 people nationwide from Aug. 26 to Sept. 27 and compared their answers with surveys done in June. Key takeaways:

• Rural parents were more likely than urban and suburban parents to say they had "major concerns" about vaccinating their children, over how new the vaccine is, whether it has been tested enough, whether it actually works, the immediate side effects (such as fever and nausea), and long-term health effects. The average of percentages expressing those concerns in June were 53% in rural areas, 47% in suburbs and 45% in cities.
• Those concerns rose in all population groups from June to September, when the average percentages were 63.4% in rural areas, 58.6% in suburbs and 57% in cities. The largest concern was long-term health effects.
• The second-most cited worry was whether the vaccine has been tested enough; the percentage of parents with such concerns in all population areas grew an average of 11 points from June to September, but only 9 points among rural parents.
• Among the three groups, rural parents' concerns rose the least from June to September. The percentage with major concerns grew an average of 10.4 points, compared to suburban parents' 11.8 points and urban parents' 12 points.