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 The study, which maps trends in vaccine confidence across 149
countries between 2015 and 2019, found that scepticism about the
safety of vaccines tended to grow alongside political instability
and religious extremism.
"It is vital with new and emerging disease threats such as the
COVID-19 pandemic, that we regularly monitor public attitudes," said
Heidi Larson, a professor at the London school of Hygiene & Tropical
Medicine who led the research.
"Perceptions about vaccines are much more volatile than they used to
be," she told a briefing. "Overall, there's a lot of confidence in
the world about vaccines. But don't take it for granted. Confidence
goes up and down ... it's highly variable."
Published in the Lancet medical journal, Larson's findings are based
on data from more than 284,000 adults asked in 2019 whether they see
vaccines as important, safe and effective.
Larson said that with drugmakers and researchers around the world
racing to develop vaccines against the COVID-19 pandemic,
governments should be now be extra vigilant about assessing public
trust in vaccines and responding rapidly to concerns.
"There's a lot of anxiety about the speed of vaccine development
(for COVID-19)," she said. "But the public is not really keen on
speed - they're more keen on thoroughness, effectiveness and
safety."
The study's results show that vaccine confidence in Europe is low
compared to other regions of the world, such as Africa, with the
proportion of people strongly agreeing that vaccines are safe
ranging from 19% in Lithuania to 66% in Finland.
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Iraq, Liberia and Senegal had the highest proportion of respondents in 2019 who
agreed vaccines are important.
But public trust in vaccines has risen in some European countries since 2015,
including France, Italy, Ireland and Britain.
The study found six countries where vaccine confidence had dropped significantly
since 2015.
In Indonesia, Pakistan, Serbia, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan and Nigeria, the
proportion of people strongly disagreeing that vaccines are safe had increased
significantly. This, Larson said, was linked to trends in political instability
and religious extremism in these countries.
"Among some countries, there is more polarisation of sentiment. More people are
going to the extremes of 'strongly disagree' or 'strongly agree'," she said.
Indonesia saw one of the largest falls in public trust worldwide between 2015
and 2019, triggered in part by Muslim leaders questioning the measles, mumps,
and rubella vaccine, and by local healers promoting natural alternatives to
vaccines.
(Reporting by Kate Kelland; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
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