CHICAGO — Roughly 1 in 4 American parents lied to or misled others about their child’s COVID-19 status at the height of the pandemic, according to a study published Monday in JAMA Network Open, a journal of the Chicago-based American Medical Association.
The research also showed that more than a quarter of parents across the country had been dishonest in some way about their child’s health, vaccination status or compliance with various COVID-19 pandemic safety measures. The findings were based on a survey of 580 parents of children under 18 from across the country, which was conducted in December 2021. Around the same time, COVID cases surged nationwide, spurring emergency school closures and abrupt switches to remote learning in many parts of the United States.
Twenty-four percent of survey respondents said they had not mentioned that they knew or believed their child was infected with COVID to an in-person contact of the child’s. More than 19% of parents polled admitted they had avoided having their child tested for the virus even though they suspected the child might have contracted COVID. About 21% had let their child break quarantine rules and just over 16% reported having said that their child didn’t need to quarantine even though doing so was required by public health guidance.
