Coronavirus Vaccines Stir Doubts Among Many People Worldwide, New Study Shows

NEW YORK and BARCELONA, Spain, Oct. 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A research team from the City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH), the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), the Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), and Georgetown University Law School has published their research revealing potential global hesitancy to accept a COVID-19 vaccine. Based on data collected with the previously validated COVID-SCORE survey of a sample of over 13,400 individuals from 19 countries that have been hard-hit by the virus, the investigators found that 72 % of participants would likely take the vaccine. Of the remaining 28 %, 14% would refuse, while 14% would hesitate, which translates into tens of millions of potential vaccine avoiders.

"We found that the problem of vaccine hesitancy is strongly related with a lack of trust in government. Vaccine confidence was invariably higher in countries where trust was higher," said Jeffrey V. Lazarus, ISGlobal researcher and study coordinator.

"We need to increase vaccine confidence, and we need to improve the public's understanding of how they can help control the spread of COVID-19 in their families and their communities," adds Ayman El-Mohandes, Dean of CUNY SPH, and co-coordinator of the study.

The country with the highest score of positive responses to "taking a proven, safe and effective vaccine" was China (87%), which also had the lowest percentage of negative responses (0.7%). On the other end, Poland had the highest number of negative responses (27 %), while the Russian respondents gave the lowest number of positive responses (55%). In the U.S., 76% of respondents answered positively, 11 % were negative, and 13% had no opinion.

"It will be tragic if we develop safe and effective vaccines and people refuse to take them. We need to develop a robust and sustained effort to address vaccine hesitancy and rebuild public confidence in the personal, family and community benefits of immunizations," warns Scott C. Ratzan, study co-author and Distinguished Lecturer at CUNY SPH. "Our findings are consistent with recent surveys in the US, which show diminished public trust in a COVID-19 vaccine," he concludes.

Heidi J. Larson, study co-author and Professor and Director of the Vaccine Confidence Project at LSHTM says, "These findings should be a call to action for the international health community. If we do not start building vaccine literacy and restoring public trust in science today, we cannot hope to contain this pandemic."

The authors note that people's decisions about vaccination depend on many factors and can change with time. Since this survey was conducted in late June 2020, vaccines have become increasingly politicized and the antivaccine movement has become more aggressive, which suggests that vaccine hesitancy may be a greater threat today.  

Lazarus, J.V., Ratzan, S.C., Palayew, A. et al. A global survey of potential acceptance of a COVID-19 vaccine. Nat Med (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-1124-9

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SOURCE City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy