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An interactive map has revealed how large proportions of people do not believe vaccines are safe, raising concerns about whether people would get a Covid-19 puncture.
Researchers in the UK, the US and Belgium collected survey data from nearly 300,000 people in 149 countries to identify vaccine “tipping points”.
They found that European countries were among the least trusting, with only one in five people in Lithuania and Albania agreeing that vaccines are safe.
In Ukraine and Turkey, three-quarters of the population believe that blows cause some kind of long-term damage to their health.
The UK has seen a surge in confidence in the last year, but still just over half (52%) agree that shocks are safe.
In the United States, Canada, and Australia, more than 60 percent of people had faith in government vaccination programs.
The scientists behind the research said that scientists and public health experts around the world “must greatly improve building public confidence in the safety of vaccination,” particularly with the hope of a COVID-19 vaccine. .
A vaccine is a hope in which politicians and scientists around the world are setting their plans, with no signs that the coronavirus will disappear until one is found.
The UK has seen a surge in confidence in the last year, but still just over half (52%) agreed that the hits were safe. In the US, Canada and Australia, more than 60 percent of people had faith in government vaccination programs.
Europe’s caution with vaccines: Only one in five people in Lithuania and Albania agree that vaccines are safe. In Ukraine, three-quarters of the population believe that blows cause some kind of long-term damage to their health.
The research was conducted by teams from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Imperial College London, the University of Washington, and the University of Antwerp in Belgium.
The scientists analyzed data from 290 nationally representative surveys conducted between September 2015 and December 2019.
A model was used to estimate trends in public perceptions of the safety and efficacy of vaccines and the importance of vaccinating children.
Poland was one of the countries in Europe that showed “ significant losses ” in confidence in the safety of vaccines: a drop from 64 percent who fully agree that vaccines are safe in November 2018 to 53 percent. cent in December 2019.
The researchers attribute the drop in confidence to the “growing impact of a highly organized local anti-vaccine movement.”
But they found that confidence in the safety of vaccines is increasing in other European countries besides the UK, including Finland, France, Italy and Ireland.
In France, confidence in vaccines increased from 22% of respondents who strongly agreed that vaccines are safe in 2018, to 30% in 2019.
By contrast, six countries – Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Serbia – saw “substantial increases” in people who strongly disagreed that vaccines are safe.
In Azerbaijan, the proportion of people who strongly disagree that vaccines are safe increased from 2% in 2015 to 17% in 2019.
The researchers described the decline in trust as a “worrying trend,” with negative attitudes reflecting political instability and religious extremism.
Indonesia, meanwhile, has seen one of the biggest drops in public trust between 2015 and 2019, where the absolute difference in perception of safety narrowed by 14 percent, the team said.
They believe the negative attitudes may have been caused in part by Muslim leaders who questioned the safety of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.
The findings, published in the prestigious journal The Lancet, also raise questions about people’s willingness to receive a Covid-19 vaccine should any of the candidates currently undergoing trials be successful.
In 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared vaccine concerns to be one of the top 10 threats to global health.
As the race to find a Covid-19 vaccine continues, the authors said that assessing public attitudes on a regular basis and taking quick action when confidence is waning ‘should be the top priority to provide the best chance of ensuring acceptance. of new vaccines that save lives. ‘
Professor Heidi Larson, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who led the research, said: ‘It is vital with the threats of new and emerging diseases, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, that we regularly monitor public attitudes to quickly identify countries and groups with declining trust, so we can help guide where we need to build trust to optimize uptake of new life-saving vaccines. ‘
Professor Larson and her team are collecting data on public attitudes towards a Covid-19 vaccine through surveys in the UK and around the world.
He said initial figures show that the arrangement in the UK has been variable. “For example, at the end of March in the UK it was only 5 per cent of the population, when death rates were high, (who) said they would not take a Covid-19 vaccine,” he said.
‘(In) June, that had risen to about 15 percent, as people saw death rates drop, because people are constantly weighing the imminent threat of disease and the risk of a new vaccine, so that will be part of your decision criteria. .
