To alleviate parents’ concerns, emphasize the rigorous clinical process of safety, efficacy, and continued monitoring of the approved vaccines that are available for children. Developing communications that include specific facts about side effects, such as comparisons of the frequencies of adverse consequences of vaccines in comparison with the adverse consequences of contracting COVID-19, and presented in a way that is easy to understand, such as using graphics or analogies, could help to address these concerns.

For parents with children under 12, safety concerns may be heightened because parents may perceive younger children as more vulnerable. Engaging parents of these younger children now, even before the vaccines for these age groups are authorized, could be critical for increasing vaccine confidence for parents of children in this age group. The focus of these conversations could be an overall description of the regulatory process, the rigor of clinical trials, the lower vaccine dose in the pediatric formulation, and a reasonable extrapolation of the data for adolescents.

Most children, especially young children, visit primary care providers on a regular basis. These health care providers are a highly trusted group. Messages from primary care providers about vaccines’ safety and efficacy may be important for parents.

To support health care providers in these efforts, local, state, and national decision makers could provide message templates and other resources to primary care providers and their professional organizations. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment, for example, has developed a manual for primary care physicians on creating and sending patients mass emails and text messages encouraging vaccination.

Parents are influenced by their broad trusted social network connections, including family members, friends, coworkers, social media networks, various media, and church members. Targeted communication to these larger social networks can help encourage parents to vaccinate their children.