The only weapon we have in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic is vaccines. They are not perfect and people find policies regarding vaccines controversial at best. However, that is all we currently have.
Now scientists at UCL found that reluctance to accept a Covid-19 booster vaccine is most common in groups that have the highest infection rates.
We don't have many weapons against COVID-19, which means we have to rely on vaccines more. Image credit: Tim Reckmann via Wikimedia (CC-BY 2.0)
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One week before lockdown scientists launched Covid-19 Social Study, which involved over 70,000 participants who have been followed across the last 88 weeks. They were answering many questions regarding the pandemic and its containment measures. Naturally, scientists detected quite a bit of unwillingness to have booster vaccines.
Researchers found that 12% of young adults feel reluctant to accept a Covid-19 booster vaccine. This number was 8% in adults aged 30-59 and 3% in those aged over 60. Booster vaccine reluctance was more common in people with lower household incomes – 10% of less wealthy people were unwilling to get a booster shot. People with children were more likely to be hesitant – 15 % of them didn’t want the booster vaccine compared to 7 % of those without children. Similarly, people in good health were more reluctant about vaccines than those in worse physical condition (11 % vs. 7).
These results are slightly concerning, because people who are more likely to need a booster shot are more reluctant. Young and healthy people feel that they have enough resistance to survive COVID-19 without vaccination, but with new variants they might be more vulnerable than they understand. Furthermore, vaccines may be more important to them, because they work with other people more often. However, good news are more plentiful than bad. 49% of adults surveyed already received or accepted their booster vaccine for Coronavirus while 39 % said they are willing to do so.
Dr Elise Paul, lead author of the study, said: “Although highly effective in preventing hospitalisations and deaths, protection from Covid-19 vaccines decreases over time, and it is therefore critical for people to accept a booster vaccine when eligible to maintain the progress that has been made in lowering the number of hospitalisations and deaths.”
People want this pandemic to be over. They want to return to a normal life and vaccines seem to be the only way to do it. And yet they are also a reminder about the changes in societies and cultures. If you really want to forget about COVID-19, you are likely wishing to forget about the vaccines as well. However, as COVID-19 is here to stay, vaccine policies are unlikely to become any more liberal.
Source: UCL