Table 2.

Themes, example topics, and example comments for the “Why” domain (worldviews shaping attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine for children) emerging from thematic and discursive analysis of public comments on the EUA of COVID-19 vaccines for pediatric use.

Theme (number of topics mapped to this theme)	Example topics mapped to theme	Example comments from mapped topics
Personal autonomy (n = 13)	(T14) government, parent, decision, choice, care, decide, overreach, childrens, responsibility, authority, federal, parental, personal, guardian, business, responsible, healthcare, agency, reach, whether (T16) medical, choice, one, individual, fit, size, personal, family, person, every, doctor, care, medicine, different, always, religious, procedure, exemption, belief, everyone (T95) school, public, pull, attend, education, require, student, teacher, order, california, home, homeschool, remove, district, governor, requirement, private, ca, comply, homeschooling	(T14) Do not make vaccines mandatory, these decisions should be left up to the individual and the minors guardians!!!!!! This is an impingement on our rights as Americans!!!! (T16) Please do not make vaccines mandatory for children. Each individual has health considerations and religious considerations. We are as unique as our fingerprints and there is no “one size fits all” when it comes to the health of ourselves and our children. Our world is being torn apart by mandates. (T95) Vote no on Covid mandates for school children! I will pull my 3 children out of CA public schools if this is a requirement!
Innocence of childhood (n = 8)	(T10) shot, please, baby, infant, toddler, little, authorize, reconsider, innocent, small, ready, precious, grandchild, forward, extend, okay, tiny, shots, newborn, mo (T75) mask, school, family, wear, pandemic, social, protection, mental, face, society, normal, community, learn, home, member, teacher, activity, access, option, physical (T91) health, issue, life, cause, condition, affect, problem, serious, could, complication, underlying, unless, exist, threaten, major, rest, underlie, pre, lifelong, elderly	(T10) Do not inject our babies with these so called vaccines! The AHA has said that they are causing heart problems an miocardidis and our babies do not need to be subjected to this! These babies are innocent, do not endanger their lives!! (T75) I am totally and completely against kids getting vaccinated and having to wear masks. Both are dangerous to their health and their emotional and mental health. (T91) Children are at no risk of Covid unless they have underline conditions. There's more healthy kids that do not need anything.
Mistrust in institutions (n = 22)	(T11) fauci, world, control, lie, biden, gate, administration, bill, agenda, dr, gain, order, nazi, house, nih, white, plan, president, china, pay (T21) science, follow, look, support, real, political, sense, scientific, actual, back, politics, money, true, agenda, behind, fear, common, ignore, statistic, truly (T43) fda, trust, public, american, lose, agency, credibility, faith, continue, organization, job, interest, political, pharmaceutical, suppose, longer, institution, confidence, ignore, corrupt	(T11) Welcome to the perpetual war on everything brought to you by Foundation Capitalism, and the Military Industrial Biologics Vortex :- ( This is more than government over reach. It is like killing an ant with a sledge hammer. Anthony Fauci is the Josef Mengele of our time, and Bill Gates is the Joseph Goebbels. (T21) If we truly follow the science our young children do not need this vaccine and will do more harm. I urge you to follow the science and not politics. Thank you. (T43) Americans won't stand for this. You are losing credibility by the second. If you suggest a covid vaccine for children for a virus that they aren't affected by (SARS Cov-2) then you will be putting nails in the coffin of what's left in terms of credibility of the fda.
Human experimentation (n = 9)	(T26) code, nuremberg, crime, humanity, law, violation, human, violate, consent, hold, illegal, constitution, criminal, nuremburg, act, accountable, cease, experimentation, unconstitutional, break (T34) therapy, gene, experimental, mrna, alter, genetic, call, technology, dna, untested, animal, definition, inoculation, unconscionable, modification, modify, traditional, novel, massive, aka (T55) use, pig, guinea, lab, rat, experiment, human, treat, precious, animal, shield, deserve, experimentation, pawn, approved, acceptable, race, unapproved, mouse, asset	(T26) No human can be made subject to a forced medical experiment. I simply refer you to the Nuremberg Code. The penalty for violation of this code is death. That is what all complicit actors and aiders and abettors will face with the absolute certainty of tomorrow's sunrise. (T34) Nobody should be getting this INOCULATION, Especially children!!! Children should not be subject to Experimental Gene Therapy at all!!! Say NO to the Covid-19 gene therapy inoculation for EVERYONE!!! (T55) Children and pregnant women are not lab rats nor test subjects. Have you not learned anything from the Thalydomide issues?????

Source: Authors’ own analysis of 149 897 public comments submitted to Docket FDA-2021-N-1088 from October 13 to 25, 2021, and Docket FDA-2022-N-0082 from February 4 to 14, 2022. The dockets pertained to amendment of the EUA for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA vaccines for administration to children aged 5-11 years and 6 months to 4 years, respectively.

Notes: Example topics and comments are keyed to the full annotated 100-topic database posted on Open Science Framework (20). “T” designates the topic number.

EUA, emergency use authorization; FDA, Food and Drug Administration.