According to a recent poll of 23 nations that represent more than 60% of the world’s population that was published today in Nature Medicine, the percentage of people throughout the globe who are prepared to embrace a COVID-19 vaccination rose from 75.2% in 2021 to 79.1% in 2022. Despite this, vaccine acceptability fell in eight nations, and roughly one in eight people who had been vaccinated expressed uncertainty about whether or not they should get a booster dose.
This third annual study, which was led by a team of researchers from the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH) and the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), reveals a wide variability between countries and suggests a need to tailor communication strategies in order to effectively address vaccine hesitancy. The study was conducted by a team of researchers from CUNY SPH and ISGlobal.
According to Jeffrey V. Lazarus, a senior scholar at the CUNY School of Public Health, “the pandemic is not finished, and authorities must promptly address vaccination hesitancy and resistance as part of their COVID-19 preventive and mitigation plan.” “However, in order to do so successfully, policymakers need reliable data on the patterns and sources of vaccination reluctance.”
In order to collect these data, an international group led by Lazarus and the Dean of the School of Public Health at the City University of New York (CUNY SPH), Ayman El-Mohandes, conducted a series of surveys beginning in the year 2020 in 23 highly populated countries that were significantly impacted by the pandemic (Brazil, Canada, China, Ecuador, France, Germany and many more).
Among the 23,000 people polled (1,000 from each country), 79.1% were open to the idea of being vaccinated. This is a 5.2% increase from June 2021. In addition, the percentage of parents who were willing to vaccinate their children improved somewhat, going from 67.6% in 2021 to 69.5% in 2022. On the other hand, the percentage of people who are uncertain rose in eight different nations, ranging from 1.0% in the United Kingdom to 21.1% in South Africa. Worryingly, nearly one in eight vaccinated respondents (12.1%) were uncertain about booster doses, and booster reluctance was stronger among the younger age groups.
According to Dean El-Mohandes, the senior author of the study, “We must remain vigilant in tracking this data, containing COVID-19 variants and addressing hesitancy, which may challenge future routine COVID-19 immunisation programmes.” “We must remain vigilant in tracking this data, containing COVID-19 variants and addressing hesitancy,”
In addition to this, the poll offers fresh data on the COVID-19 therapies that were administered. Ivermectin was used just as often as other authorised treatments all around the world, despite the fact that the World Health Organization (WHO) and other organisations do not encourage using it to prevent or treat COVID-19.
It is also important to note that over forty percent of respondents said they were paying less attention to the latest COVID-19 material than they had in the past, and there was less support for mandatory vaccinations.
Hesitancy to be vaccinated was linked, in certain nations, to being female (for instance, in China, Poland, and Russia), not having a university degree (in France, Poland, South Africa, Sweden, or the United States), or having a lower income. This was also the case in Sweden (in Canada, Germany, Turkey or the U.K.). Additionally, the demographics of individuals in different nations that paid less attention to the epidemic were different.
The results of these surveys may give policymakers and public health experts with valuable information that may help them resolve concerns about the COVID-19 vaccination. The report comes on the heels of a worldwide consensus declaration on the elimination of COVID-19 as a concern to public health, which was published in Nature in November and authored by Lazarus, El-Mohandes, and 364 other co-authors from 112 different nations.