Of the vaccinated 12-17-year-olds, eight out of ten would take a booster shot if the opportunity arose, the results of the lastest Grat Corona Study by the University of Antwerp (UAntwerpen) show.
Nearly 80% (79.4%) of the 12-17-year-olds who already received their basic vaccination would 'probably' or 'definitely' also get their booster shot. 11.6% said they would 'maybe' do it, and only 9% would 'probably not' or 'definitely not' get a booster.
"So there is little reluctance to have the booster shot," the researchers say. "The numbers are a lot higher than for the basic vaccination for younger children."
Meanwhile, Flemish Health Minister Wouter Beke announced that the region will prepare to start offering a booster dose to teenagers on its own, if a country-wide agreement is not reached on Friday evening.
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Of the respondents whose eldest child is aged between 5 and 11 years old, 42.5% said that their child had already been vaccinated, 11.2% will 'definitely' or 'probably' have their child vaccinated later, 7.7% will 'maybe' do it, and 38.6% 'probably not' or 'definitely not'.
The main reasons parents gave for not vaccinating their child(ren) between the ages of 5 and 11 were: they did not think Covid-19 was severe enough in children (70%), or they did not think their child was at risk of getting sick (56%).
Another share of parents do not think there is a sufficient guarantee of safety for Covid-19 vaccines (53%), they do not think the child has to be vaccinated because they had already had Covid (38%), or they thought the vaccine was developed too quickly to be good (34%).
In the meantime, politicians are debating a possible vaccination obligation for all adults - something with 74.4% of the 13,800 participants in the Great Corona Study are in favour of, 18.1% are against and 7.5% do not know.
