The first COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in several countries around the globe, giving many people the hope that the end of this pandemic is close. However, in many countries, a large number of the population is hesitant or unwilling to vaccinate.
According to a global survey of potential acceptance of a COVID-19 vaccine that was published in Nature back in October 2020, from 13,426 randomly selected individuals across 19 countries only 71.5% responded that they would take a vaccine if it were proven safe and effective, while high heterogeneity in responses was observed among countries. The vaccination trust issue is not new of course, and suspicion has been around as long as the vaccines themselves. But in recent years more than ever, the vaccine hesitancy conversation seems to be appearing worryingly often to the table.
Many reasons may act as causes for undermining confidence in vaccines and in the authorities distributing them. Some people are concerned about the adverse reactions, although in some cases there are events not causally linked with vaccination, however, they are believed to be so. Others don’t believe in the vaccines’ effectiveness or actual importance. The WHO has also identified complacency as a key issue, mainly in developed countries.
Media reports, social media rumors, extensive media coverage may also make some people wonder about a product’s credibility and impact one’s decision to vaccinate. For example, a growing number of parents are influenced by “anti-vax” material on social media, leading them to confusion about whether to vaccinate their children. Others are worried when they are informed about vaccine recalls suspensions or replacements of one vaccination product to another version.
There were also certain events that caused a huge public reaction and had a massive and devastating impact on vaccine confidence. For example, in 2007 shortly after the German Standing Committee on Vaccination (STIKO) recommended the human papillomavirus vaccine (HPV) for girls between 12–17 years, a team of 13 scientists released a report claiming that the efficacy of the HPV vaccine had not been sufficiently proved and that this vaccination call is orchestrated only to serve the pharma industry. Although these claims were later proven false by STIKO, the publication had devastating consequences to the introduction of the HPV vaccine to the public.
The vaccine issue has been greatly politicised, too. The former US President Donald Trump has been expressing anti-vaccine views since 2007, claiming that he believes vaccines can cause autism in young children, although recently urged parents to get their children vaccinated. Matteo Salvini, Italy’s former Minister of the Interior, has also supported the anti-vaccination movement.
According to the WHO, vaccines are estimated to prevent between two and three million deaths worldwide every year. Before vaccines were developed, people were dying from diseases that can now be prevented. Vaccines helped drastically reduce the burden of these diseases and in some cases, like smallpox, managed to eliminate them completely, while coming very close to eliminating others, such as polio. But there are other diseases, such as measles, that are now making a resurgence, with significant outbreaks in countries all over the world.
Now, in view of this pandemic too, vaccination hesitancy should only be viewed as a global crisis. To receive a vaccine or not is one’s right of course, but history and science have proven repeatedly that it shouldn’t really be a question.
#vaccinehesitancy #vaccinetrust #Covid19 #vaccinedebate #vaccineconversation
Sources
https://www.immunize.org/reports/report051.asp
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-48186856
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31558-0/fulltext#seccestitle130
https://www.kxly.com/health-officials-face-another-hurdle-as-some-people-lack-trust-in-vaccines/