The pandemic interrupted childhood vaccination almost everywhere, especially due to intense demands on health systems, the diversion of immunization resources to COVID-19 vaccination, health worker shortages and stay-at-home measures.
Otherwise, the next wave of deaths could be of more children with measles, diphtheria or other preventable diseases.”Īlarmingly, the decline in confidence comes amid the largest sustained backslide in childhood immunization in 30 years, fuelled by the COVID-19 pandemic. We cannot allow confidence in routine immunizations to become another victim of the pandemic. But despite this historic achievement, fear and disinformation about all types of vaccines circulated as widely as the virus itself,” said Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director. “At the height of the pandemic, scientists rapidly developed vaccines that saved countless lives. These factors include uncertainty about the response to the pandemic, growing access to misleading information, declining trust in expertise, and political polarisation. However, the report warns the confluence of several factors suggest the threat of vaccine hesitancy may be growing. In almost half the 55 countries studied more than 80 per cent of respondents perceived vaccines as important for children. Despite the falls, overall support for vaccines remains relatively strong.
Additional data collection and further analysis will be required to determine if the findings are indicative of a longer-term trend. Vaccine confidence is volatile and time specific. In most countries, people under 35 and women were more likely to report less confidence about vaccines for children after the start of the pandemic.* In the new data, collected by The Vaccine Confidence Project and published today by UNICEF, China, India and Mexico were the only countries studied where the data indicates the perception of the importance of vaccines held firm or even improved. The State of the World’s Children 2023: For Every Child, Vaccination reveals the perception of the importance of vaccines for children declined by more than a third in the Republic of Korea, Papua New Guinea, Ghana, Senegal and Japan after the start of the pandemic. NEW YORK, 20 April 2023 – The public perception of the importance of vaccines for children declined during the COVID-19 pandemic in 52 out of 55 countries studied, UNICEF warned today in a new report on immunization.
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