It’s Not Just Anti-Vaxxers Who Worry About Vaccines
Health officials have to build trust by addressing vaccination concerns and being transparent about the uncertainties.
What we know and what we don’t.
Photographer: Boonchai Wedmakawand/Moment RF
With any luck, one of the handful of promising Covid-19 vaccines currently going through human trials will meet with regulatory approval, maybe even in time for winter. One thing worrying public health officials, though, is what happens if a significant number of people don’t want to be vaccinated.
Vaccines are responsible for saving millions of lives every year, and yet there has always been a small but hardcore contingent of anti-vaxxers that rejects the science or buys into conspiracy theories about immunizations. Unfortunately, their ranks are growing during the current crisis. National health authorities, along with the World Health Organization, are engaged in a furious game of whack-a-mole as they try to knock down the conspiracy theories and correct misinformation.