This survey originally appeared in the Lancet. Below is an excerpt. View the full findings here.
A new survey investigated the association between confidence in governments and the percentage of respondents who did not have vaccination in the past 5 years because of safety concerns, grouped by country. The survey found that no history of vaccination in the past 5 years because of safety concerns was associated with lower trust in national parliament, and with lower trust in local and national government and political parties in the Eurobarometer survey. Health-care professionals were the top two resources of information on vaccination, followed by health authorities. The most common resource was a general practitioner, doctor, or a pediatrician, and the second most common resource was a health-care worker such as nurse or a specialist doctor. A hidden solution to overcoming vaccine hesitancy could be the establishment of trust among government, parliament, and health-care professionals to promote clear policy making on vaccination, rather than coercive measures, such as extension of mandatory vaccination and elimination of non-medical exemption.