Vaccine Hesitancy

SOCIETY/ GOVERNANCE

Topic:

• GS- 1: Society
• GS-2: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation

Vaccine Hesitancy

• Vaccine hesitancy is defined as a reluctance or refusal to vaccinate despite the availability of vaccine services.

What factors has led to Vaccine Hesitancy?

The debates around hesitancy for COVID-19 vaccines include 

• concerns over safety, efficacy, and side effects due to the record-breaking timelines of the vaccines
• competition among several companies, misinformation
• Religious taboos

• A storm of misinformation around COVID-19 vaccines 

• Susceptible of people to misinformation due to existing biases, information overload and limited attention spans.

Way Ahead

• The target audience must be the swing population i.e., people who are skeptical but can be persuaded through scientific facts and proper communication.
• Use the celebrity effect — the ability of prominent personalities to influence others to take vaccines.
• Celebrities can serve as agents of positive social change, erasing scepticism associated with vaccine adoption and prompting information-seeking and preventative behaviours
• Fact-check any news related to COVID-19 vaccines.
• The infodemic around vaccines can be tackled only by actively debunking myths, misinformation and fake news on COVID-19 vaccines.

Connecting the dots:

• Sociological analysis of rumours: Click here