Vaccine hesitancy could derail COVID-19 control

Subject

COVID-19 and vaccine hesitancy.

Significance

In 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) cited “vaccine hesitancy” as one of the top ten threats to global health. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, great hope has been placed on developing a vaccine to help countries return to normalcy. However, for a vaccine successfully to achieve the goal of population immunity, large-scale uptake is crucial. The growing anti-vaccination (‘anti-vax’) movement, which has strong pre-COVID-19 foundations, threatens to derail future vaccination campaigns.

Impacts

• Stakeholders in public health will have to divert increasing amounts of resources to counter anti-vax content.
• Social media companies will come under increasing pressure to ensure they do not give a platform to misinformation relating to vaccinations.
• The full impact of the anti-vax movement will only be revealed when a vaccination campaign commences.