Will Vaccination Refusal Prolong the War on SARS-CoV-2?

"Public opinion surveys on SARS-CoV-2 vaccination are a valuable tool..."

In recent years, vaccine hesitancy has been on the rise, with childhood vaccination rates declining and preventable diseases outbreaks occurring more frequently. After the development of vaccines to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, the world will be faced with the challenge of convincing enough people to actually get vaccinated. To understand both the scope of this challenge and how to address it, these study involved collecting public opinion survey results about attitudes towards severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccination conducted in 2020 in 26 European countries.

Stressing that the collected survey results represent the public's opinion only at a certain moment in time, the researchers pooled available survey results conducted on a total of 24,970 European participants. On average, only 58% of responders across Europe were willing to get a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine once it becomes available, 16% were neutral, and 26% were not planning to vaccinate against SARS-CoV-2. The countries with the highest percentage of positive responses were: Denmark (80%), the United Kingdom (79%), Portugal (75%;), and Italy (except Lombardy; 74%); the countries with the lowest percentage of positive responses included: Hungary (30%), Bosnia and Herzegovina (32%), and Montenegro (34%). In short, a significant number of European countries would not be able to reach the estimated herd immunity threshold (67%) even with a theoretically 100% effective SARS-CoV-2 vaccine utilisation, if the present trends in public opinion hold steady.

It is important to understand the reasons why people do not want to get vaccinated. Among the participants of the survey that was conducted in Russia who stated they would not get a vaccine, 19% said they feel no need for it, 18% were concerned about the effectiveness of such a vaccine, 11% were not clearly informed about the new vaccine, 9% regarded the process of vaccination as dangerous, 9% stated the vaccine's impact on the immune system as a reason not to get vaccinated, 8% did not want to get a vaccine without additional information, 5% did not believe in the existence of SARS-CoV-2, 5% were afraid of vaccination consequences, 4% stated contraindications for vaccination, 4% did not believe that SARS-CoV-2 is dangerous to them, and 3% believed they had a good immune system. "All the stated reasons emphasise the lack of proper information and trust towards science and vaccination among the members of the general public. Thus, scientists, physicians, public health and government authorities should all strive to address the questions and doubts of the general public and begin providing answers and reassurance in a clear, repetitive and organised way."

Related to the issue of trust is the role global politics has been seen to play in the development of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, with governments working as quickly as possible to be the first to finish/win the "vaccination race". Per the researchers, one potential example of such a rushed vaccination approval is the Russian Sputnik vaccine, "which was approved in Russia without a proper phase III trial." They argue that "the global scientific community must not be subjected to political influence and it should remain transparent, honest and selfless."

In conclusion: "[I]t is important that we start conducting educational public health activities on the values and benefits of vaccination as soon as possible...in order to improve the attitudes towards upcoming widespread SARS-CoV-2 vaccination....The impact of such educational interventions should not be limited only to the SARS-CoV-2 vaccination but should also entail highlighting the benefits of increased response rates to other vaccination programmes as well."