A scientific paper "Once we have it, will we use it?" by Iryna Sabat, Sebastian Neuman-Böhme, Nirosha Elsem Varghese et al.A European survey on willingness to be vaccinated against COVID-19
26 June 2020
"United but divided: policy responses and people's perceptions in the EU during the COVID-19 outbreak" by Nirosha Elsem Varghese, Iryna Sabat, Sebastian Neuman-Böhme, Pedro Pita Barros, Werner Brouwer, Job van Exel, Jonas Schreyögg and Tom Stargardt.
While the focus of attention currently is on developing a vaccine against the Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 to protect against the disease COVID-19, policymakers should prepare for the next challenge: uptake of the vaccine among the public. Having a vaccine does not automatically imply it will be used. Compliance with the anti-H1N1 vaccine during the 2009 influenza pandemic, for instance, was low, and in the decade since, vaccination rates have remained an issue of concern while vaccination hesitancy has become more prevalent, leading to increases in disease outbreaks in multiple countries. It is, therefore, important to understand whether or not people are willing to be vaccinated against COVID-19, as this can have large consequences for the success a vaccination programme—with potentially large health and economic consequences. In this editorial, we provide some first insights into this willingness to be vaccinated, based on a multi-country European study, which hopefully result in more attention for this important issue.