Infectious Disease

Study results show that vaccinations are common enough to compromise herd immunity

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Tram does not report any relevant financial information. Please refer to the study for all relevant financial information from the other authors.

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Of the nearly 460,000 people surveyed in the US earlier this year, more than 10% said they would “probably not” get a vaccine and more than 8% said they would “definitely not,” researchers reported.

The survey showed that vaccination reluctance remained constant with increasing vaccine intake and was high enough to compromise achieving herd immunity, the researchers said.

Tram KH et al.  Clin Infect Dis.  2021;  doi: 10.1093 / cid / ciab633.

Tram KH et al. Clin Infect Dis. 2021; doi: 10.1093 / cid / ciab633.

“We were initially interested in studying the extent or extent of the vaccine delay in the United States to understand the slow uptake of the vaccine during initial adoption.” Khai Hoan Tram, MD, a fellow in the Department of Infectious Diseases at the University of Washington, Healio said. “Although access to vaccines was undoubtedly a significant barrier to uptake in many communities, we found that a large proportion of people still remained unvaccinated for a number of reasons, even when they were available.”

For the study, Tram and colleagues analyzed data from the US Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey – a bi-weekly cross-sectional survey of US households – to estimate the prevalence and reasons for vaccination reluctance.

“Vaccine hesitation is not a new phenomenon and one can look back on reluctance to adopt other vaccines like the flu vaccine and childhood vaccinations, but the drivers of COVID-19 vaccine delay in particular seem to be in some ways unique and very well situated.” in today’s social, political and demographic context, ”said Tram.

A total of 459,235 people took part in the survey between January 6th and March 29th. During this time, vaccine intake increased from 7.7% to 47% while the hesitation rate remained unchanged.

Overall, according to Tram and colleagues, vaccination hesitation constitutes a “significant proportion” of the population large enough to “threaten the achievement of herd immunity,” with 10.2% of participants saying that they are unlikely to receive a vaccine and 8.2% said they would definitely not get a vaccine.

The study also showed that socio-demographic predictors of reluctance differ from rejection. For example, female gender and black race were factors that predicted hesitation. The same characteristics predicted vaccine reluctance rather than rejection. Income, education, and state political leanings also strongly predicted hesitant vaccination.

“Overall, the intensity and type of hesitancy to vaccinate vary between sociodemographic groups and across geographical and political boundaries. Different reluctant groups – for example, those who are reluctant and those who oppose the vaccine – need segmented public health strategies and targeted approaches to encourage vaccine uptake, “said Tram. “The effectiveness of the vaccine is insufficient for the uptake of the vaccine. The implementation of the introduction of vaccines must take into account a variety of perspectives and attitudes. There is much to do.”

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