Vaccine hesitancy: Where are we and where are we going?

Infectious diseases & their variants are an uncontrollable threat to human exsistence. A justified way to prevent infection explosion associated with lethal damage is timely vaccination. It provides immunization, builds self-immunity & provides overspread health protection. In spite of its good effects, vaccine hesitancy is a complicated hurdle to global vaccination, infection eradication & optimum healthcare availability.

What is vaccine hesitancy (VH)?

As per the world health organization, VH is the “delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite the availability of vaccine services. VH has been reported in more than 90% of the countries in the world & depends on geographical location, vaccine type, complacency, convenience & confidence. 

Causes of VH

VH develops due to multiple reasons such as less established vaccine safety data, fear of adverse effects & toxicity, unsurity of vaccine composition & components, supportive research studies & vaccine manufacturing technology, previous bad vaccine experience, distrust of doctors, healthcare providers, government authorities, pharmaceutical companies. Additional causes are religious conditioning, faith in natural or organic remedies, peer pressure, vaccination inconvenience, cost & negative personal reviews & news on social media and negative vaccine campaigns.  There is also development of more distrust in vaccine effectiveness due to multiple infection outbreaks. Vulnerable populations such as chronic disease patients, the elderly, pregnant women & lactating mothers show VH behaviour. 

Why focus on the VH problem?

Low vaccine uptake compromises herd immunity, leading to less number of vaccinated population, low infection protection & high infection transmission & spread. This enhances infection outbursts probability among the unvaccinated population. Altogether VH decreases the immunization program success rate. Hence there is a crucial requirement to understand the VH problem. 

Current scenario (Covid-19 vaccination)

Almost 5.8 billion people (74.4%) worldwide are vaccinated for COVID-19 currently. VH is declared as 1 among the top 10 global health threats & it is of utmost priority to determine the real cause of the same. 

How to diminish the VH issue?

Joint effort between government, healthcare professionals, public health officials, technical people & civil society can stop the myths & misconceptions revolving around vaccination. Inability to do this increases community based infection spreadability exponentially. Doctors & pharmacists collaboratively can positively influence a patient's vaccine related decision making, acceptance & confidence. By listening patiently & providing effective authenticated easy to understand science based information about the vaccine, trust can be slowly built. Immunization team should act proactively while addressing the VH problem & interact with patients routinely. Continuous encouragement towards vaccine related positive messages will surely bring desired immunization reach. Immunization teams should always be ready to initiate vaccine oriented conversation including its efficacy, components, severity & adverse effect frequency and make patients aware about the harmful detrimental effects of non-vaccination. Mass influencers, public representatives & government officials should offer pro-vaccination information during their public appearance & meetings. 

Conclusion 

Success rates of infection prevention are opposed by VH. Focused innovative non stop science driven positive empathetic vaccine promotion efforts can help break the VH barrier.