Study reveals vaccine confidence declined considerably during COVID-19 pandemic

A brand new examine means that, regardless of the success of the COVID-19 vaccination campaigns, vaccine confidence has declined considerably because the begin of the pandemic.

Researchers from the College of Portsmouth carried out two nameless surveys within the winters of 2019 and 2022 to research folks’s attitudes in direction of vaccinations and the elements which may underpin hesitancy and refusal.

By evaluating the responses of greater than 1,000 adults total, they discovered the post-pandemic group was significantly much less assured in vaccines than within the pre-pandemic one.

The paper, revealed within the medical journal Vaccine, revealed almost one in 4 contributors reported a fall in confidence since 2020, and this was noticed no matter contributors’ age, gender, non secular perception, training and ethnicity.

Dr. Alessandro Siani, Affiliate Head (College students) of the College of Organic Sciences on the College of Portsmouth, mentioned: “Whereas vaccine hesitancy just isn’t a brand new phenomenon, COVID-19 vaccines have been met with explicit hostility regardless of the overwhelming scientific proof of their security and effectiveness.

“This is not simply amongst conspiracy theorists although, but in addition those that do not think about themselves ‘anti-vaxxers’ and had supported different vaccination campaigns prior to now.”

Individuals have been requested how a lot they agreed with statements together with:

• Vaccines are protected
• I feel vaccines needs to be a obligatory observe
• I consider if I get vaccinated it could profit the well-being of others
• Vaccines are a necessity for our well being and well-being

In each surveys contributors who held non secular beliefs have been considerably extra vaccine-hesitant than atheist and agnostic ones, and people from Black and Asian backgrounds have been extra hesitant than these belonging to White ethnicities. Nevertheless, gender confirmed no affiliation with vaccine confidence.

Whereas these total developments remained largely comparable between the 2 surveys, some noteworthy adjustments have been noticed within the post-pandemic survey. For instance, the evaluation revealed that whereas in 2019 middle-aged contributors have been significantly extra apprehensive about getting vaccinated than youthful teams , this was not the case within the 2022 survey.

“This may very well be as a result of COVID-19 infections notoriously result in extra extreme outcomes in older sufferers”, added Dr. Siani.

“Younger people who find themselves contaminated not often expertise extreme signs that result in hospitalization and loss of life, so it is attainable that many have turn out to be complacent and do not feel the necessity to get vaccinated. Alternatively, older folks might have been extra cautious of the implications of the an infection, and extra appreciative of the safety provided by the vaccine.”

Whereas offering valuable perception into how the pandemic affected the general public views on vaccinations, the examine just isn’t with out limitations. The unique survey was designed as a standalone piece of analysis, so a unique group of individuals needed to be sampled in 2022. This resulted in a cross-sectional examine versus a longitudinal one.

Dr. Siani defined: “We did not anticipate a worldwide pandemic to interrupt out only some months after finishing up the 2019 survey. As a result of our findings do not mirror the altering opinions of the identical group of individuals over time, however fairly a comparability of responses supplied by two totally different cohorts, they need to be interpreted with a grain of salt.

“Nevertheless, the examine is per different observations suggesting that vaccine confidence could also be one more sufferer of the COVID-19 pandemic.”