We measured vaccine confidence pre-pandemic and in 2022 – it is declined significantly

It’s one of many biggest achievements of contemporary science. Inside solely a yr of SARS-CoV-2 (the coronavirus that causes COVID-19) being recognized, protected and efficient vaccines had been developed, examined, and had begun to be rolled out. For the reason that first doses had been administered practically two years in the past, they’re estimated to have saved tens of hundreds of thousands of lives.

And but COVID vaccines attracted appreciable opposition earlier than their improvement 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’ speedy improvement and approval gave approach to a brand new group of vaccine sceptics. These folks don’t think about themselves “anti-vaxxers”, and didn’t essentially oppose different vaccinations, however had considerations over the pace at which COVID vaccines had been examined and permitted.

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 lately printed research, through which 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 contributors’ age, gender, non secular beliefs, training and ethnicity.

Learn extra:
COVID vaccines do not simply profit bodily well being – they enhance psychological well being too

One notable distinction between the 2 surveys was that whereas within the pre-pandemic group middle-aged contributors had been considerably extra vaccine-hesitant than their youthful friends, this was not the case for the 2022 group.

This statement may very well be partly defined by the truth that COVID is thought to trigger extra severe sickness in older sufferers, whereas it doesn’t generally result in hospitalisation and dying 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, contributors 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 research does have limitations. After we ran the primary survey in 2019, we couldn’t have anticipated a pandemic to interrupt out only some months later. So the research was not initially designed to comply with up the contributors’ opinions over time (known as a longitudinal research).

As an alternative, we used the identical strategies to recruit a second group of contributors for the 2022 survey, and requested them the identical questions so we might evaluate the outcomes (a cross-sectional research). Because of this, 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 moderately present snapshots of two comparable teams at two distinct moments in time.

We did, nonetheless, add a single query to the 2022 survey asking contributors to report their change in vaccine confidence since COVID. Practically one in 4 mentioned their confidence in vaccines had dropped for the reason that pandemic.

How can we rebuild declining vaccine confidence?

Our research is according to different analysis suggesting that vaccine confidence could also be one more sufferer of the COVID pandemic.

Selling confidence in vaccines is essential to assist us struggle infectious ailments which can be already amongst us, in addition to new ones that may undoubtedly emerge sooner or later. So how can we handle this problem?

A key aspect is to reassure the general public in regards to the security of vaccines. Though, like all drugs, they carry a really small threat of significant side-effects, these dangers are minuscule in contrast with the injury brought on by the ailments they shield in opposition to.

For instance, within the case of COVID, many individuals hesitate to get vaccinated as a result of they’re involved in regards to the uncommon side-effect of myocarditis (irritation of the center muscle). Nevertheless, ample medical proof signifies {that a} COVID an infection carries a a lot increased threat of myocarditis than getting vaccinated – greater than sevenfold.

Learn extra:
Needle phobia may very well be the reason for 10% of COVID vaccine hesitancy within the UK – new analysis

Confidence in vaccinations will 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 colleges, but additionally amongst adults, notably these with caring tasks, corresponding to mother and father, carers and healthcare employees.