A new survey of 23,000 adults in 23 countries taken in October 2023 finds a lower intent to get a COVID-19 booster vaccine (71.6%), compared with 2022 (87.9%).
Moreover, 60.8% expressed being more willing to get vaccinated for diseases other than COVID-19 as a result of their experiences during the pandemic, while 23.1% reported being less willing.
“This study reveals that a substantial proportion of individuals express resistance to vaccination and that concerns about COVID-19 vaccination appear to have spilled over to affect other vaccine-preventable disease,” the authors write.
This study reveals that a substantial proportion of individuals express resistance to vaccination and that concerns about COVID-19 vaccination appear to have spilled over to affect other vaccine-preventable disease.
The findings, published in Nature Medicine, offer a new global snapshot of COVID vaccine attitudes and show that vaccine hesitancy and trust challenges remain throughout the world today.
"The repercussions of pandemic disruptions in healthcare services, the effects of the inequitable and slow global vaccine distribution, and the prevalence of misinformation and mistrust in health authorities continue to be felt," said lead author Jeffrey V. Lazarus, PhD, CUNY professor of global health, in a press release from CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy. "They represent major obstacles for health practitioners struggling to meet the urgent need to get people caught up on routine immunizations and ready to face the next pandemic."
While booster uptake dropped from 2022 to 2023, the number of respondents with at least one COVID vaccine dose increased to 87.8% in 2023, compared to 36.9% in 2021 and 70.4% in 2022.
Willingness to get booster drops in high-income countries
The reluctance to get a booster could spell trouble for nations now trying to handle COVID-19 as a seasonal threat best tempered by seasonal, annual vaccines.
"The SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to circulate and mutate," said Ayman El-Mohandes, PhD, a senior author of the study and dean of the CUNY School of Public Health. "Variant-adapted boosters are available, but public health statistics show that many older people and others who are at higher risk of severe disease and death have not accepted them."
This is the fourth annual survey to assess attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccines conducted by this research group. The 23 countries included were Brazil, Canada, China, Ecuador, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Willingness to get a booster dose of vaccine dropped most notably in high-income countries compared to middle-income countries. In the richest countries surveyed, 85.1% of respondents in 2022 said they were willing to get a booster, compared to just 63.3% in 2023.
Across high-, middle-, and low-income countries, trust in health authorities who recommended COVID-19 vaccination was higher than trust in governments’ management of the COVID-19 pandemic, at 65.4% and 56.4%, respectively.
