Objective: This study aimed to determine the differences in attitudes and views towards influenza and pneumococcal vaccines in parents of children with asthma during the COVID-19 pandemic.Materials and Methods: Asthmatic children in the 6-18 age group who were admitted to the pediatric allergy clinic of our hospital between October 1, 2020 and February 31, 2021 were included in the study. The parents were given a questionnaire asking about their demographics and medical history. Their attitudes and thoughts towards these two vaccines, both before and during the pandemic, and their COVID-19 stories were questioned.Results: A total of 78 patients diagnosed with asthma were included in this study.While the rate of influenza vaccination before the pandemic was 29.5%, the rate of those who received or wanted to receive influenza vaccine during the pandemic was 71.8% (p = 0.001). It was observed that the rate of influenza vaccination during the pandemic increased with the regular use of asthma medication, the presence of atopy, and a history of COVID-19 infection in the family/close environment. In total, 69.2% of the parents stated that their child's pneumococcal vaccination was incomplete or they were unaware of their child's vaccination status.
Conclusion:This study demonstrated that there was an increase in the rate and willingness of parents of asthmatic children to have their children vaccinated against influenza during the COVID-19 pandemic. As for the pneumococcal vaccine, the majority of the parents did not have enough information or they were unaware of the vaccination status of their children. K E Y W O R D S allergy, asthma and early wheeze, COVID-19, influenza vaccine, pneumococcal vaccine 1 | INTRODUCTION After the World Health Organization (WHO) reported cases of pneumonia of unknown etiology in Wuhan, China, on December 31, 2019, it was understood that the causative agent of the disease was a new type of virus from the Coronavirus family detected for the first time in humans on January 7, 2020 and was named severe acute respiratory syndrome 2 on January 19, 2020. The disease was abbreviated as COVID-19 and was declared a global pandemic by the WHO in March 2020. 1 Studies have shown that mortality and morbidity in COVID-19are associated with certain chronic diseases. 2 Diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, obesity, diabetes, chronic lung diseases, hypertension and cancer in adults, and diabetes, adrenal insufficiency, chronic lung diseases, cancer, immunodeficiencies, and chronic kidney failure in children increase the mortality and morbidity related to COVID-19. 3,4 Regarding asthma, the most common chronic disease of childhood,