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 Some 71.5% of participants said they would be very or somewhat
likely to take a COVID-19 vaccine and 61.4% reported they would
accept their employer's recommendation to do so, according to the
survey in June of more than 13,000 people in 19 countries.
The poll was overseen by the Vaccine Confidence Project (VCP), a
global surveillance programme on vaccine trust funded by the
European Commission and pharmaceutical companies among others, as
well as Business Partners to CONVINCE, a U.S./British initiative
that is partly government funded.
All respondents, regardless of nationality, said they would be less
likely to accept a COVID-19 vaccine if it were mandated by
employers.
There were regional differences in responses though, highlighting
the polarisation in attitudes on the topic.
Almost 90% of participants in China said they accepted a vaccine,
but the rate in Russia was less than 55%. In France, the positive
response rate 58.89%, compared with 75.4% in the United States and
71.48% in Britain.
At least 60-70% of the population would need to have immunity to
break the chain of transmission, according to the World Health
Organization.
Respondents were aged 18 years or older from 19 countries from among
the top 35 countries affected by the pandemic in terms of cases per
million population.
The results will likely stir the debate about how to overcome public
safety concerns, particularly in Western countries, about the
frenetic speed of work to develop vaccines, potentially hampering
efforts to control the pandemic and revive the global recovery.
There are about 200 COVID-19 vaccine candidates in development
globally, including more than 40 in human clinical trials to test
for safety and effectiveness. Many are being squeezed into a matter
of months for a process that would typically take 10 years or
longer.
"VACCINE HESITANCY"
Scott Ratzan, co-leader of Business Partners to CONVINCE and
lecturer at CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy,
said the data demonstrated diminished public trust.
"It will be tragic if we develop safe and effective vaccines and
people refuse to take them," he said in an email.
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"We need to develop a robust and sustained effort to address vaccine hesitancy
and rebuild public confidence in the personal, family, and community benefits of
immunisations."
Reporting a willingness to get vaccinated might not be necessarily a good
predictor of acceptance, as vaccine decisions can change over time.
Also the poll took place before Russia started the mass inoculation of its
population with its Sputnik V shot before full studies had been completed and
AstraZeneca <AZN.L> had to pause its late-stage study in September due to a
participant's illness.
Last month, nine leading U.S. and European vaccine developers issued a pledge to
uphold scientific standards and testing rigour.
Last week, Facebook Inc <FB.O> said it would start banning ads that explicitly
discouraged people from getting vaccinated.
Even before the pandemic, it was a growing challenge for public health bodies.
In January 2019 the World Health Organization named vaccine hesitancy as one of
the top 10 global health threats for that year.
Countries where acceptance exceeded 80% tended to be Asian nations, including
China, South Korea and Singapore, where there is strong trust in central
governments, the study found.
A relatively high tendency toward acceptance in middle-income countries, such as
Brazil, India and South Africa, was also observed.
Age also affected attitudes. Older people were more likely to report that they
would take a vaccine, whereas younger respondents were more likely to accept an
employer's vaccine recommendation.
This finding might reflect who was actually employed or employable at the time
of the survey which was an issue they did not investigate, it said.
(Reporting by Josephine Mason; Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in
Geneva; Editing by Alison Williams)
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