Mandating Vaccines For North Jersey Kids: Patch Survey Results

NEW JERSEY – Parents, please get your teenager vaccinated against coronavirus. That's the message from Gov. Phil Murphy at his press conference last week. And according to our Patch survey, most North Jersey parents will do just that.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel approved the emergency-use authorization of Pfizer's vaccine for teens ages 12-15 last Wednesday. Garden State children began receiving inoculations almost immediately afterward.

We wanted to know more about our reader's feelings about vaccines for children. We sent a survey to all 60 North Jersey Patch sites and more than 1,800 responded.

Our results are below out of 1,843 responses.

Editor's note: This survey was not meant to be a scientific poll, with random sampling and margins of error, but was meant only to gauge the sentiments of our readers in an informal way.

Will you give consent to have your teen vaccinated in New Jersey?

The majority of our respondents said yes, they would with a margin of 55.4 percent. The people who would not consent tallied 44.6 percent. Drilling down, out of those vaccinating their children, 58.3 percent said it was because they will feel safer knowing their child is inoculated.

Readers on both sides of the issue had strong opinions on the subject when filling out the survey.

"Go get vaccinated. Polio didn’t go away just by itself. Or, smallpox. Or, TB. Vaccines got us here. For this who are thinking otherwise, for the love of god, don’t be a doofus and go get your family safe," one reader wrote.

"We don't talk about the risks of having covid... they are not insignificant and are likely to have lasting effects that are worse than possible vaccine side effects," another noted.

But there were many others who disagreed.

"Children don't get seriously ill with COVID-19 and have a low chance of dying or being hospitalized," one said.

Do you think schools should require proof of vaccination for eligible students?

The majority of respondents said schools should not require proof of vaccinations, with a 54.2 percent margin. On the flip side, 45.8 percent feel proof should be mandatory.

Should other programs like after-school activities or camps require proof of vaccination to attend?

The numbers were similar to vaccination proof for schools questions with 53.7 percent of respondents saying no and 46.3 percent saying yes. As expected, many readers had thoughts on whether it should be a requirement.

"The Covid vaccine should be a required vaccine, period. There is no other way to keep our communities safe and return to 'normal life.' The misinformation and disinformation on the covid vaccine, and so many other weighty topics, is destroying our great democracy and society in general," a respondent said.

"We require all sorts of vaccines for kids to attend school, so why all the fuss about this one that will literally save lives and give us back some semblance of life before Covid-19? I am vaccinated, and the kids will be also and the children of all of my friends are going to be," another said.

Some struck a more moderate tone.

"I think that the vaccine should eventually become mandatory when it is no longer in the emergency use category," a reader replied.

"People who want their children to get the vaccine should get it. Those who decline should have their choices respected," another wrote.

And there were some that were completely against mandating, and vocal about it.

"Children will develop natural immunity to the virus if left unvaccinated so while I will likely have my children vaccinated there is absolutely no scientific reason to make it mandatory for a virus that has a 99.77 survival rate for children. The government needs to stop fear mongering," summed up one person's opinion.

While North Jersey is clearly split on whether to vaccinate and whether it should be mandatory, one reader warned that a mandated vaccine would be another reason for a Garden State exodus.

"People will leave NJ if this is required for students to be involved in activities and in person learning," they said.

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