Tackling Vaccine Hesitancy

Context: Understanding and analysing the steps necessary to tackle vaccine hesitancy.

Understanding vaccine hesitancy

• Definition: According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), it is a reluctance or refusal to be vaccinated, regarded as one of the top threats to global health.
• Past occurrences:
  • Observed in Britain around vaccination against whooping cough in the 1970s and 1980s and against measles in 1990.
  • Hesitancy around HPV vaccine in Japan and tetanus toxoid in Kenya recorded.
  • In India, there was hesitancy during the polio vaccination campaign.
• Contemporary challenges: In this age of surplus information (digital age), outbreaks of misinformation, spread through social and digital media channels, have the potential to significantly impact public health.
  • India is particularly vulnerable to this challenge because we are increasingly moving towards consumption of news and information online and through social channels.
  • This kind of misinformation, when directed towards public health programmes such as immunisation, can adversely impact public trust, especially through an ‘echo chamber’ effect.

Way forward

• Understanding benefits of vaccines: Vaccines are an important public health tool to mitigate the impact of infectious diseases.
  • Some vaccines prevent infections from gaining a foothold in our body; others like Covid-19 vaccines (disease-modifying vaccines) reduce the severity of illnesses.
• Building public trust through clear and transparent communication: Need to equip ourselves as well as healthcare professionals and frontline workers with the information needed to counter misinformation.
  • Counter misinformation and rumours: Seeding positive messages proactively in community and on social platforms demonstrating positive behaviour change.
  • Address community’s concerns with empathy.