Abstract
Despite strong scientific evidence supporting the effectiveness of vaccination in protecting individuals against COVID-19 and reducing the frequency and intensity of outbreaks, hesitancy surrounding vaccination is still very much prevalent in the United States. This leaves a non-negligeable portion of the US population vulnerable to infection while putting others at risk, notably the elderly and immunosuppressed. Current studies investigating predictors associated with an individual’s decision to get vaccinated against COVID-19 focus mostly on the adult population. However, pediatric COVID-19 vaccination is a crucial endeavour in the overall reduction of SARS-CoV-2 transmission. While interning as a junior health data scientist at Precision Analytics Inc., we retrieved, parsed, pre-processed, and analyzed US-wide county level data on predictors of COVID-19 undervaccination in children and adolescents aged 5 to 17 years, including but not limited to, income-to-poverty ratio, race, health insurance coverage, and educational attainment. Through statistical modeling, we uncovered preliminary evidence suggesting a very strong negative association between a high proportion of conservative voters in a county (having voted Republican during the 2020 US presidential election) and pediatric COVID-19 vaccination coverage in the US. It is likely the case that politicization of COVID-19 vaccination has swayed some parents into not vaccinating their child against COVID-19.