Publication date: Mar 22, 2025

Vaccine hesitancy increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. We evaluated if manifestation of adverse events when caregivers received their vaccine was associated with their willingness to vaccinate their children. A multicenter, cross-sectional, multi-lingual survey of caregivers presenting to 19 pediatric Emergency Departments in the USA, Canada, Israel, and Switzerland early during the early stage of the pandemic, before vaccines for children were available. We asked caregivers if they were vaccinated against COVID-19, to report any side effects and if they would give vaccine to their child. We categorized all reported side effects and report the most common ones. We report willingness to vaccinate based on child’s age. Of 4261 caregivers, mean caregiver age was 38. 3 years, 2893 (68. 3 %) mothers, 3108 (73. 3 %) greater than high school education. 43. 6 % reported side effects, 35. 7 % reported no side effects and 20. 7 % were unvaccinated. The lowest rate of caregivers planning to vaccinate their children was the unvaccinated (6. 9 %) and the highest was among caregivers who did not report any side effects (74. 4 %). Caregivers with no reported side effects after vaccination were more likely to vaccinate their children compared to those that had some side effects (aOR of 1. 34, 1. 52 and 2. 14 for ages

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