Vaccine Hesitancy: When Political Miscommunication Replaces Scientific Benefit/Risk Assessment

Christian Rausch
Special Advisor to the CEO, Uppsala Monitoring Centre
Peter J Pitts
President, Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, Visiting Professor, University of Paris Medical School
Hervé le Louët
CEO Uppsala Monitoring Centre, Professor, Université Paris-Est Créteil

DOI:https://doi.org/10.5912/jcb1012

Abstract:

Around the world, scientists, manufacturers and governments jumped into the race to develop a vaccine to combat COVID-19 and its associated lockdowns. A global response was required since defeating the pandemic requires global alignment. The availability of COVID-19 vaccines has always been a major concern for the WHO particularly in low and middle-income countries. While the vaccine development programs moved successfully forward, another problem, vaccine hesitancy, became a worrying factor in the movement towards herd immunity in many countries. Several factors contribute to this predicament.