6.5% of Spain’s population refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19, according to survey

Influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) epidemics are increasing in Europe. Along with COVID-19, these viruses are expected to have a major impact on health services and populations this winter. This shows the importance of getting vulnerable groups vaccinated against the flu and her COVID-19, as well as protecting themselves and others from infection.

One of the problems is that people are reluctant to get vaccinated.Research done by UOC researchers published in open access in scientific journals pro swan on assessing resistance to vaccination against COVID-19 in Spain during the Spring-Autumn 2021 campaign among both the public and health professionals and how to overcome it. We provide information.

“The aim of this study was to create an accurate and reliable portrait of a specific point in time when the first vaccination campaign against COVID-19 took place and determine what could be improved in the future,” Salvador Macip i says Maresma. He is a Physician and Professor in the Department of Health Sciences at UOC and Director of Research at the Institute of Cancer and Aging Mechanisms at the University of Leicester.

Macip participated in the study, led by Francesc Saigi Rubió, a researcher at the eHealth Center and Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center for eHealth at the UOC. She is Marina Bosque, a student in UOC’s Health Sciences Department, a professor in the Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences, and a researcher at UOC’s eHealth Center.

An environment of suspicion and suspicion

A mass vaccination campaign for the general public will begin in Europe in spring 2021 to combat the pandemic caused by COVID-19. The severity of the disease, the rapidity with which various vaccines become available, and mistrust of pharmaceutical laboratories have created an environment of suspicion and suspicion surrounding new drugs and their widespread application, killing thousands of people. are now refusing the vaccine.

Social media was full of hoaxes, false information When fake news It was intended to create an atmosphere of distrust against vaccines and the new methods used to produce them, such as messenger RNA technology. Some even viewed it as a general rule.

reluctance to vaccinate

During the study period, experts surveyed more than 4,300 people, including 500 medical professionals working in various fields of medicine, through social media in Spring 2021. At that time, his 48.6% of general population participants had been vaccinated. COVID-19, and 6.5% general population Reported hesitance to get vaccinated. However, the older the respondents, the higher the proportion of those who were vaccinated.

“The youngest and least educated were the least reluctant to get vaccinated. social group I thought the benefits of the vaccine would be less because I perceived the lowest risk of experiencing problems related to COVID-19,” the expert noted, and having a higher level of education and medical knowledge , stressed that there would be “less hesitation” for these innovative drugs.

Meanwhile, 95% of participating health professionals had been vaccinated against COVID-19. “Healthcare workers had more doubts about whether vaccines were effective and safe. But they were the least comfortable with getting vaccinated. concept,” he Macip.

Another aspect that was considered in this study was the acceptance or rejection of vaccines depending on the laboratory that produced them. But those who got the Pfizer vaccine say they got their “preferred vaccine.”

In Europe, as the campaign was conducted, vaccines based on mRNA (messenger RNA) were preferred over other types of vaccines available to the population at the time. “The acceptance of vaccination against coronavirus has not been affected by the anti-vaccine movement or by some media misinformation,” the expert said of the then-obvious circumstances of the pandemic.

Information to increase confidence in vaccines

Although these data are not particularly negative, a significant proportion of the population still refuses this type of vaccine.This group risks their own well-being and poses a public health problem. It’s even possible. “Ignorance creates the most hesitation, but good information can even overcome the attraction that anti-vaxxers create. Social mediasaid the researcher.

In fact, according to the World Health Organization, vaccination Hesitation was a ‘common’ problem even before the pandemic, considered one of the 10 leading threats to global health.

To overcome it, experts believe that accurate, verified, transparent and timely information is the most effective way to raise public awareness and minimize rejection and hesitation towards this class of drugs. The benefits are clear, as hesitation and refusal decrease as vaccination campaigns are implemented and their function and effectiveness are understood. “Information campaigns are essential. The more people know about a new drug, the less they fear it,” he concluded Macip.

Courtesy of Catalonia Radio University