Transparency urged to raise COVID-19 vaccine uptake

SciDev.Net, the world’s leading source of news, views and analysis about science and technology for global development, published an article about the IAP report on Countering COVID-19 Vaccines Hesitancy.

Issues around vaccine acceptance must be addressed alongside equity of access and logistics if the goal of vaccinating 70 per cent of the world’s population against COVID-19 is to be met, says a report by global health policy experts.

Emerging causes of so-called “vaccine hesitancy”, described by the World Health Organization (WHO) as “the reluctance or refusal to vaccinate despite the availability of vaccines”, should be monitored continually in order to better understand the problem, according to the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP).
The 26 April Countering COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Report spotlights the socio-political and psychological issues around vaccine hesitancy and sets out recommendations for overcoming them.

It says surveillance systems are needed to track any adverse effects of vaccines, while non-politicised debate and transparency around data are essential to improving COVID-19 immunisation rates worldwide.

IAP co-chair Margaret Hamburg said: “Vaccine hesitancy is one of the most pressing issues of our response to COVID and more broadly our opportunity to prevent disease and improve health.”

You can read the full article 'Transparency urged to raise COVID-19 vaccine' uptake here.

Image credit: Jemila Tofik, an extension health worker at Logia health center in Afar, Ethiopia, getting the COVID-19 vaccine in 2021. Health policy experts have said ‘Vaccine hesitancy’ must be tackled to meet 70 per cent COVID-19 immunisation target. Copyright: Tewodros Tadesse / UNICEF Ethiopia, (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).