The COVID-19 pandemic and associated vaccination efforts have brought the issue of vaccine hesitancy to the forefront of media and public attention. From 2019 to 2021, the prevalence of the term "hesitancy" in titles of scientific literature has risen from 3.3% to 8.3%, and continued skepticism around the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines remains a significant barrier in achieving global herd immunity. A 2020 survey of over 300,000 adults from more than 110 countries reported that 32% of respondents are unwilling to receive a free COVID-19 vaccine. Globally, this is the equivalent of 1.3 billion individuals refusing to participate in the vaccination efforts.
Vaccines have been shown to be over 90% effective against serious illness and hospitalization, subsequently reducing healthcare burden. With many parts of the world easing COVID-19 lockdown measures, it is imperative to revisit the topic of hesitancy in the medical community and best practices for future events.
The Then and Now
Since the development of vaccines, the average time between identification of a disease-causing pathogen and the development of an effective vaccine (with the exclusion of COVID-19 and smallpox) was 48 years. Following vaccine development, the average time for vaccinating 20% of the global population was 36 years, and 42 years for 40% coverage