COVID-19: A global survey of potential acceptance of a vaccine

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The COVID-19 pandemic has been imposing huge burdens of morbidity and mortality while causing severe disruption to societies and economies across the globe. The good news is that several COVID-19 candidate vaccines have been brought to clinical trials in record time, and a safe and effective vaccine could be approved for production, distribution and acceptance some time in 2021.

When such a vaccine becomes available, governments worldwide must be ready to ensure large-scale, equitable access and distribution of the vaccine. This will need adequate health system capacity, as well as efficient strategies to enhance trust in and acceptance of the vaccine and those who deliver it.

A recent study, highlighted by the The Conversation UK and published in Nature Medicine, has surveyed 13,426 people in 19 countries to determine potential acceptance rates and factors influencing acceptance of a COVID-19 vaccine. Overall, the authors found that 71.5% of participants said they would take a “proven safe and effective vaccine” while 14% would refuse it outright. An additional 14% said they would hesitate to take the vaccine. Acceptance rate was found to vary significantly with age, education, health status and between countries (from 55% to over 80%).

Additionally, respondents reporting higher levels of trust in information from government sources were more likely to accept a vaccine. This shows that public health officials, governments, scientists and vaccine advocacy groups must work together to build vaccine literacy through a coherent strategy.

According to the authors:

Future vaccine communication strategies should consider the level of health, scientific and general literacy in subpopulations, identify locally trusted sources of information and go beyond simply pronouncing that vaccines are safe and effective. Strategies to build vaccine literacy and acceptance should directly address community-specific concerns or misconceptions, address historic issues breeding distrust and be sensitive to religious or philosophical beliefs. Clear and consistent communication by government officials is crucial to building public confidence in vaccine progams. This includes explaining how vaccines work, as well as how they are developed, from recruitment to regulatory approval based on safety and efficacy.

Effective campaigns should also aim to carefully explain a vaccine’s level of effectiveness, the time needed for protection (with multiple doses, if required) and the importance of population-wide coverage to achieve community immunity. Instilling public confidence in regulatory agency reviews of vaccine safety and effectiveness will be important. Credible and culturally informed health communication is vital in influencing positive health behaviors, as has been observed with respect to encouraging people to cooperate with COVID-19 control measures.

Study: Lazarus, J.V., Ratzan, S.C., Palayew, A., Gostin, L.O, Larson, H.J., Rabin, K., Kimball, S., El-Mohandes, A . A global survey of potential acceptance of a COVID-19 vaccine. Nat Med (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-1124-9.

Highlight: Stephen Khan. COVID-19: A global survey shows worrying signs of vaccine hesitancy. The Conversation UK.

BactiVax - Siobhán McClean