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| LETTER TO EDITOR |
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| Year : 2023 | Volume
: 14
| Issue : 1 | Page : 72 |
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Vaccine hesitancy: A contemporary issue for new COVID-19 vaccination
Pathum Sookaromdee1, Viroj Wiwanitkti2
1 Private Academic Consultant, Bangkok, Thailand
2 Department of Community Medicine, Dr. DY Patil University, Pune, Maharashtra, India
| Date of Submission | 11-Feb-2021 |
| Date of Acceptance | 18-Feb-2021 |
| Date of Web Publication | 16-Jun-2023 |
Correspondence Address:
Pathum Sookaromdee
Private Academic Consultant, Bangkok
Thailand
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/ijpvm.ijpvm_56_21
How to cite this article:
Sookaromdee P, Wiwanitkti V. Vaccine hesitancy: A contemporary issue for new COVID-19 vaccination. Int J Prev Med 2023;14:72 |
Dear Editor,
There are some recent reports of vaccine hesitancy globally toward the new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines. Vaccine hesitancy is an important issue to be discussed in preventive medicine. There are many factors that can lead to vaccine hesitancy.[1],[2] Regarding the new COVID-19 vaccine, a considerable high rate of hesitancy among local people is reported.[3],[4] There are many factors that underline the COVID-19 vaccine hesistancy. First, confidence in the vaccines and vaccination system is the important focus. The data on the efficacy and safety of the new vaccine is presently limited. The reports on vaccine efficacy usually give different results and the cost effectiveness of different vaccines is different.[5] Due to the lack of data, the vaccine is usually not recommended for some specific populations such as pediatric and obstetric cases. Due to a recent report from the US, the willingness of local people to get COVID-19 vaccine would increase if there were additional data on increased efficacy of the vaccine.[6] Second, complacency can also result in hesitancy. If the perceived risk of the specific disease is low, one might select to get vaccine. Indeed, the young usually get mild disease and it might generally be recommended for no vaccination in the pediatric group. Third, convenience is also important issues. In many setting, the process to get vaccination might be difficulty. Some settings might require registration by complex processes such as online registration that will not be applicable for some local people. Lack of convenience is a possible overlooked problem for the poor, underprivileged, and minority population groups. Fourth, communication can also bring hesitancy. Fake news on social media can result in hesitancy. It is no doubt that it the anti-vaccine group use the social media as tool for communication, it can rapidly affect in vaccine fearfulness among the local people.[7] In addition, the quality of communication by the local government might not effective. Based on freedom in communication, many medical scientists might give different ideas, pro- and cons- on the new vaccine and the local people might get confusion. The considerations on the mentioned factors are necessary for public health policies makers for implementation on the COVID-19 vaccination program.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
| References | |  |
| 1. | MacDonald NE. Vaccine hesitancy: Definition, scope and determinants. Vaccine 2015;33:4161-4.  |
| 2. | Chou WY, Budenz A. Considering Emotion in COVID-19 vaccine communication: Addressing vaccine hesitancy and fostering vaccine confidence. Health Commun 2020;35:1718-22. |
| 3. | Ababneh NA, Bakri FG, Mahafzah A. High rates of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and its association with conspiracy beliefs: A study in Jordan and Kuwait among other Arab Countries. Vaccines 2021;9:42. |
| 4. | Latkin CA, Dayton L, Yi G, Konstantopoulos A, Boodram B. Trust in a COVID-19 vaccine in the US: A social-ecological perspective. Soc Sci Med 2021;270:113684. |
| 5. | Sookaromdee P, Wiwanitkit V. New COVID-19 vaccines, its cost and shelf life: A cost effectiveness analysis. Arch Med Res 2021;52:453. |
| 6. | Kreps S, Prasad S, Brownstein JS, Hswen Y, Garibaldi BT, Zhang B, et al. Factors associated with US Adults' likelihood of accepting COVID-19 vaccination. JAMA Netw Open 2020;3:e2025594. |
| 7. | Burki T. The online anti-vaccine movement in the age of COVID-19. Lancet Digit Health 2020;2:e504-5. |
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