It’s one of many biggest achievements of contemporary science. Inside solely a 12 months of SARS-CoV-2 (the coronavirus that causes COVID-19) being recognized, secure and efficient vaccines had been developed, examined, and had begun to be rolled out. For the reason that first doses had been administered almost two years in the past, they’re estimated to have saved tens of thousands and thousands of lives.
And but COVID vaccines attracted appreciable opposition earlier than their growth was even full. Whereas vaccine hesitancy will not be a brand new phenomenon, COVID vaccines had been met with notably virulent hostility amongst conspiracy theorists and different anti-vaxxers.
In the meantime, the vaccines’ fast growth and approval gave method to a brand new group of vaccine sceptics. These folks don’t take into account themselves “anti-vaxxers”, and didn’t essentially oppose different vaccinations, however had issues over the pace at which COVID vaccines had been examined and authorised.
This results in the query of whether or not, regardless of the plain success of COVID vaccination campaigns, public confidence in vaccines has decreased for the reason that onset of the pandemic.
My pupil and I sought to reply this query in our not too long ago revealed examine, wherein we in contrast vaccine confidence pre-pandemic and for the reason that rollout of COVID vaccines.
We in contrast the outcomes of two on-line surveys carried out in November 2019 and January 2022, involving greater than 1,000 adults. The survey responses confirmed that confidence in vaccinations within the post-pandemic group was significantly decrease than within the pre-pandemic group.
A drop in vaccine confidence was noticed no matter individuals’ age, gender, non secular beliefs, schooling and ethnicity.
One notable distinction between the 2 surveys was that whereas within the pre-pandemic group middle-aged individuals had been considerably extra vaccine-hesitant than their youthful friends, this was not the case for the 2022 group.
This statement might be partly defined by the truth that COVID is understood to trigger extra critical sickness in older sufferers, whereas it doesn’t generally result in hospitalisation and loss of life in younger folks. So it’s conceivable that older folks felt extra motivated to get their jab, and had been extra appreciative of the safety it afforded them.
Each in 2019 and 2022, individuals who held non secular beliefs had been considerably extra vaccine-hesitant than atheist and agnostic ones. In the meantime, respondents from black and Asian backgrounds had been extra hesitant than these of white ethnicity. There was no affiliation between gender and vaccine confidence in both survey.
Whereas offering helpful insights into how the pandemic affected public views on vaccination, this examine does have limitations. Once we ran the primary survey in 2019, we couldn’t have anticipated a pandemic to interrupt out just a few months later. So the examine was not initially designed to comply with up the individuals’ opinions over time (known as a longitudinal examine).
As an alternative, we used the identical strategies to recruit a second group of individuals for the 2022 survey, and requested them the identical questions so we might examine the outcomes (a cross-sectional examine). In consequence, our findings ought to be interpreted with warning, as they don’t mirror the altering opinions of the identical group of individuals over time, however fairly present snapshots of two comparable teams at two distinct moments in time.
We did, nonetheless, add a single query to the 2022 survey asking individuals to report their change in vaccine confidence since COVID. Almost one in 4 stated their confidence in vaccines had dropped for the reason that pandemic.
How can we rebuild declining vaccine confidence? Our examine is according to different analysis suggesting that vaccine confidence could also be yet one more sufferer of the COVID pandemic.
Selling confidence in vaccines is essential to assist us battle infectious illnesses which can be already amongst us, in addition to new ones that may undoubtedly emerge sooner or later. So how can we deal with this problem? A key factor is to reassure the general public concerning the security of vaccines. Though, like all drugs, they carry a really small danger of significant side-effects, these dangers are minuscule in contrast with the harm attributable to the illnesses they defend in opposition to.
For instance, within the case of COVID, many individuals hesitate to get vaccinated as a result of they’re involved concerning the uncommon side-effect of myocarditis (irritation of the center muscle). Nevertheless, plentiful scientific proof signifies {that a} COVID an infection carries a a lot increased danger of myocarditis than getting vaccinated – greater than sevenfold.
Confidence in vaccinations might be fostered by making certain clear communication from governments and public well being companies and selling science literacy in any respect ranges. This could occur in faculties, but additionally amongst adults, notably these with caring obligations, akin to dad and mom, carers and healthcare employees.
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