Question: I’m trying to assuage my child’s fears about pain during vaccination.  I thought I read that for kids, the COVID shot hurts less than the flu shot.  Is that true?

Answer: I haven’t seen any scientific study on this question in particular, but it’s likely that you’re correct.  Specifically, as compared with the flu shot, the COVID vaccine for children ages 5-11 has a much lower injection volume than the influenza vaccine for people ages 3+ (0.2 mL vs. 0.5mL).  Previous research has shown that lower injection volume is associated with less pain.  Second– and totally anecdotally– my 8-year-old reported after his first COVID vaccination yesterday that “the shot hardly hurt” and he thought it hurt less than his recent flu shot.  Finally, others are also reporting that the COVID shot hurts less than the flu shot.  For example, Dr. Gronvall, senior scholar at the Center for Health Security and associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, recently wrote a set of FAQs about the vaccine for children, stating directly that “COVID shots often hurt less than the flu shot.”  Dr. Gronvall also recommends that parents assuage their children’s fear of needles by making a game of it at home for practice; “It hurt a little bit and now it’s all better. Let’s put a Band-Aid on it.”