Revealed: The vaccine myths Aussie parents are falling for

It’s a leading cause of preventable death in young kids – but an astonishing survey reveals many parents are misinformed about this dangerous illness. See the facts all parents should know.

Influenza can make young children seriously unwell, but many Aussie parents are unaware of the dangers.

More than two-thirds of parents who are not planning to give their child the flu vaccine are unaware a new jab is necessary each year, leaving kids unprotected in a “severe” flu season.

Influenza is this country’s leading cause of vaccine preventable deaths in preschool-aged children, but a new survey of more than 2000 Australian parents has found just over half of children are likely to be vaccinated this winter.

The Royal Children’s Hospital’s national child health poll, released on Sunday, also found one-in-three parents did not know the flu can cause serious illness in healthy children.

Poll director and paediatrician Dr Anthea Rhodes said this myth was concerning and more than half of the children admitted to the Royal Children’s this year were previously healthy kids.

“We’ve seen over 70 children admitted to the hospital with influenza, a small number of those who have even been in intensive care,” she said.

“It’s definitely not the case that flu doesn’t affect kids, it’s quite the opposite.

“It’s one of the more common and more serious viruses particularly for young children.”

She said we were “not even close” to the peak of the 2023 flu season, which risks hitting us “faster and harder” after several years of Covid restrictions.

“We have seen an early onset of the flu season,” she said.

“It seems to be more severe, more children presenting to hospital.

“We’re really urging parents to get that vaccination done.

“The flu changes every year. The vaccine is new every year.”

But 70 per cent of parents who do not plan to immunise their child were unaware of this fact, making it the top reason for flu vaccine hesitancy in this cohort.

Other popular beliefs were that the “vaccine might not work well enough” (held by almost half of vaccine hesitant parents) and concerns for side effects (45 per cent).

One third of parents agreed their “child can get flu from flu vaccine” while another 20 per cent were not sure if this was true or false.

Dr Rhodes said this myth continued to exist but there was “no possible way” anyone could catch the virus from the vaccine.

“This is not a live vaccine,” she said.

But the second biggest reason cited by parents was not related to misinformation, but cost, which was selected by half of hesitant parents.

All children under the age of six are eligible for the free flu vaccine, and 63 per cent of this age group’s parents said they were planning to immunise their child compared to 57 per cent for children aged 6-months to 17-years-old.

But Dr Rhode said there were positive signs, with the number of children whose parents plan to vaccinate them this winter higher than previous years.

“It’s not too late,” she said.

“There’s definitely still time to get your kids vaccinated.”