Graduation Year

2023

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Human Biology

Second Department

Sociology

Reader 1

Pete Chandrangsu

Reader 2

Gary Yeritsian

Terms of Use & License Information

Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

© 2023 Jennifer Vidal

Abstract

The Covid-19 Pandemic in a short amount of time put into action disease control measures. Current literature has sought to address the long-term effects of sanitization efforts and social isolation on the diversity of the microbiome and the future of infectious diseases. Microbes – microorganisms such as bacteria, protozoa, algae, fungi, and viruses – inhabit the natural environment and human microbiome with our immune system, playing an essential role in immune regulation. The interplay between humans and microbes forms early immune development that has impacted parents’ attitudes toward microbes shown through their participation in Covid-19 preventative health practices. Using the National Immunization Survey Child COVID Module (NIS-CCM), this study evaluated telephone interview responses from parents and guardians of children aged 5-17 years and collected information on their outlooks to represent trends in vaccination status and intent and other health behavioral indicators. Using R Studio, a comparison of the child vaccination status with 9 factors –child age range, adult vaccination status, previous conditions/vaccinations, school vaccination requirements, vaccination confidence, vaccination hesitancy, covid concern, and vaccination accessibility – was visualized where a chi-squared test was performed to evaluate the distribution of the categorical variables. The statistical analysis of the compared categorical variables found them not significant. While this study did not find a statistically significant association, the call to action is still being echoed by microbiologists for different methods of disease transmission that take into account microbial diversity.

Download

Share

COinS