Vaccines (Jul 2023)

The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Vaccination Hesitancy: A Viewpoint

  • Mirko Leonardelli,
  • Federica Mele,
  • Maricla Marrone,
  • Cinzia Annatea Germinario,
  • Silvio Tafuri,
  • Lorenza Moscara,
  • Francesco Paolo Bianchi,
  • Pasquale Stefanizzi

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11071191
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 7
p. 1191

Abstract

Read online

Vaccination hesitancy is considered by the World Health Organization as a danger to global health. In recent years, vaccine hesitancy rates to COVID-19 have been studied worldwide. In our study, we aim to provide an overview of the concept of vaccine hesitancy, with regard to the post-COVID era, and to provide prevention and management strategies. A search of the international literature until March 2023 was conducted in the PubMed database. The 5723 papers found were divided into two groups: prior to the COVID-19 era and from 2021 onward. Papers about the vaccine hesitation phenomenon are becoming more common during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and following the marketing that the vaccine companies have carried out on the different types of COVID-19 vaccines. It is advisable that healthcare authorities, at the national and international level, as well as healthcare professionals, at the local level, should promote a series of activities to reduce the vaccine hesitancy rate.

Keywords