Abstract
Objectives: An effective vaccine to SARS-CoV-2 cannot be successfully deployed if a significant number of people worldwide are unwilling to accept it. We investigated the relationship between trust in scientists and medical professionals and perceptions of vaccine safety and effectiveness. We also build on past studies by exploring the relationship between confidence in global health organizations and vaccine hesitancy. Methods: We conducted an online survey in seventeen countries/territories across five world regions between May -June 2020. We assessed the relationship between COVID19 vaccine hesitancy, confidence in public health organizations, and trust in key experts and leaders. Results: Our findings strongly suggest that confidence in the World Health Organization combined with trust in domestic scientists and healthcare professionals is a strong driver of vaccine acceptance across multiple countries/territories. Conclusion: We find that hesitancy is widespread, and uptake would be insufficient to achieve herd immunity. There is widespread confidence in how public health organizations have responded to the current pandemic and this is related to vaccine acceptance. Our results also highlight the important role of trust in health care providers and scientists in reducing COVID19 vaccine hesitancy.
Highlights
With the realization that a vaccine to SARS-CoV-2 is essential to gain control of the pandemic, many have expressed legitimate concerns about vaccine hesitancy [1, 2]
Country-specific longitudinal trends prior to the COVID-19 pandemic show the impact of anti-vaccine movements and misinformation on vaccine hesitancy in some countries and regions [4]. These results indicate that much of the world falls short of effective vaccine acceptance levels for COVID19 herd immunity, especially when there are concerns about vaccine safety [5, 6]
Recent research, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, has found that trust in scientists and healthcare professionals is higher than expected around the world, and that there is a strong relationship between trust in scientists and medical professionals and perceptions of vaccine safety and effectiveness [13]. While this is good news, there remain important gaps in our understanding of what types of trust and confidence are most critical to vaccine acceptance, how this varies across countries, and the role of trust and confidence in the context of a global pandemic
Summary
With the realization that a vaccine to SARS-CoV-2 is essential to gain control of the pandemic, many have expressed legitimate concerns about vaccine hesitancy [1, 2]. Just a year before the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, vaccine hesitancy was considered one of the top 10 global health threats [4]. Country-specific longitudinal trends prior to the COVID-19 pandemic show the impact of anti-vaccine movements and misinformation on vaccine hesitancy in some countries and regions [4]. These results indicate that much of the world falls short of effective vaccine acceptance levels for COVID19 herd immunity, especially when there are concerns about vaccine safety [5, 6].
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