Leena Fraihat
Communities all over the world are preparing themselves for the COVID-19 vaccine in an attempt to put an end to the atrocities of this pandemic. However, a rising concern amongst medical specialists is the expected number of vaccine hesitant patients. In fact, vaccine hesitancy is classified by the World Health Organization as one of the top 10 threats to our global health, proving it to be an extremely dangerous concept. Some individuals fear the side effects, others believe conspiracy theories towards the origin of the vaccine or doubt the reliability of the vaccine altogether. Regardless of the reason, it is in no doubt that during a time like this, we must unite to tackle this issue immediately.
This topic of concern is one that has been around since the very start of vaccination discovery although it has transformed immensely. As early as the 1800s, around the time of which Edward Jenner developed the first successful smallpox vaccination, populations have refused doses based on the belief that it went against their religious values. People also assumed that taking such an injection violated their personal freedom and felt that they had the right to choose whether or not they have to get vaccinated. At the time this triggered a response from local and national legislators during the mid 1800s to begin to mandate vaccinations targeting those who were particularly vulnerable to viruses, which mostly entailed children up to the age of 14, adding penalties for those who refused.
Today, a lot of these traditional concerns still stand. Despite multiple disease outbreaks in the past and countless amounts of scientific evidence supporting the validity and reliability of vaccines, the fear of injecting a foreign chemical impedes on the required precautions to maintain safety from many. This is why it is essential that all communities completely understand the root of vaccine hesitancy in order to target these areas. According to the vaccine hesitancy model, the individual's decision to get vaccinated is based on factors of complacency, confidence and convenience.
Confidence in the vaccine refers to the lack of trust in the dose as well as the system providing them. This includes, health workers and the legislators mandating such vaccines. To tackle this, medical specialists should educate local communities on the process of which vaccinations undergo in order to prepare the body to defend itself against the attack. This means that people will better understand how exactly the vaccination came together and therefore give them a sense of consistency because they are completely aware as to where the chemicals came from. It’s also essential that we encourage individuals to build a healthy relationship with their doctors so that they feel they can trust them and therefore decrease the chance of any future doubts or concerns surrounding vaccines. Another way to gain this trust is by allowing medical scholars to get vaccinated publicly. This will allow populations to feel confident with the vaccination process as they are seeing those who they trust, undergoing the same thing.
Vaccine complacency on the other hand, involves the disbelief in vaccines being a necessary step towards safety and protection. This stems from the underestimation of the importance of the vaccine as well as the miseducation towards the actual benefits. This therefore causes an under appreciation for the vaccine as a result of the lack of knowledge on the topic. Populations will usually consider the risk of vaccines upon the risk of the virus it is protecting you from and will therefore not feel as if the injection is necessarily of worth, dismissing the health risk completely. In order to prevent this, communities should continue to educate themselves on the value of vaccinations in order to understand the risk they are putting the self under when refusing one.
Vaccine convenience refers to the availability of the service to a high quality. This mainly considers the country’s level of development because this often impacts the amount of medical resources that are accessible. Also, the extent to which vaccine services are considered comfortable, affordable and appealing on an individual scale. Some populations lack medical supplies and therefore do not have the required resources to implement vaccination facilities. This makes it an international responsibility to send resources to these areas to ensure they too are staying safe.
In conclusion, vaccine hesitancy is a risk that threatens people from every corner of the earth. We can no longer stand by and dismiss the issue as an irrelevant one. All communities are urged to target these three areas but to also make the effort to educate yourself on the importance of vaccines. We are currently living in a time where we do not have time to waste.
