COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in Kedah, Malaysia: A Qualitative Study (original) (raw)

Issues in Vaccine Hesitancy in Malaysia: A Countering Approach

2017

Immunization has been introduced for decades to eradicate fatal infectious diseases by inoculating attenuated, killed or toxoid of microorganisms such as bacteria and virus. The triggering action to the immune system would not harm the host; despite can boost the immune responses to any infection. However, several cases of the eradicated infectious disease have re-emerged due to the existence of vaccine hesitancy group. Vaccine hesitancy has been observed emerging worldwide due to rejection in receiving vaccine. The main obstacle in vaccination program was identified according to the misconception that they received from internet or any mass media without boundaries. Various actions from the government have met the needs to enforce and educate the public especially the hesitant group towards better disease prevention with vaccination. The strategy would cover any interaction activities or programs with the public in transferring the information about the vaccination and its benefit ...

VACCINE HESITANCY: A 21 ST CENTURY CHALLENGE OF GLOBAL HEALTH IMPORTANCE

International Journal of Advanced Academic Research, 2022

Vaccine hesitancy is the complete rejection or a delay in accepting vaccines and vaccine services when such services are available and fully accessible. Vaccine hesitancy though relatively new in research literatures is classified as one of the major threats to global health in the 21 st century. Vaccine hesitancy has historically been in existence for centuries, but the current wave of hesitancy against the COVID-19 global pandemic vaccines has now brought it to the center stage. Vaccine hesitancy is predicated by some complex interrelated factors that border around convenience, complacency, and confidence. The attendant complex interrelating factors influencing vaccine hesitancy spans the continuum of space, time, and place. However, in a bid to mitigating these challenges, strategic and tailored advocacies, evidence-based implementation, tailored public health education, and a de-politicization of science is required. Thus, the continuous monitoring and evaluation of the impacts and mitigating efforts at combating vaccine hesitancy should be encouraged. Vaccines save lives! This fact should therefore remain the cornerstone of all vaccine advocacy efforts. This review seeks to evaluate issues surrounding vaccine hesitancy, especially as it relates to the COVID-19 vaccines; and suggested ways to navigating this current global health challenge.

Vaccine hesitancy: a structured review from a behavioral perspective (2015-2022

Psychology, Health & Medicine, 2024

Vaccine hesitancy, a complex behavioral phenomenon, poses a significant global health threat and has gained renewed attention amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper scrutinized peer-reviewed literature on vaccine hesitancy published from 2015 to 2022, with a specific focus on behavioral perspectives, utilizing a Theories-Constructs-Variables-Contexts-Methods (TCVCM) framework. The study highlighted prominent theoretical approaches, abstract concepts, research variables, global contexts and academic techniques employed across a selected sample of 138 studies. The result is a consolidated overview of research and schematization of the factors influencing vaccine hesitancy and vaccination behaviors. These include individual-level, contextual, vaccine-specific, organizational, and public-policy-related dynamics. The findings corroborated the complexity of vaccine hesitancy and emphasized the difficulties of pursuing vaccine advocacy. The analysis also identified several directions for future research, and the need to conduct more contextual studies in low-and middle-income nations to bring out the cross-cultural nuances of vaccine hesitancy.

Towards a More Critical Public Health Understanding of Vaccine Hesitancy: Key Insights from a Decade of Research

Vaccines

Vaccine hesitancy has gained renewed attention as an important public health concern worldwide. Against this backdrop, over the last decade, we have conducted various qualitative, social science studies with the broad shared aim of better understanding this complex phenomenon. This has included various Cochrane systematic reviews of qualitative research globally, systematic reviews of qualitative research in Africa, and primary research studies in South Africa. These studies have also explored vaccine hesitancy for various vaccines, including routine childhood vaccination, HPV vaccination and other routine vaccinations for adolescents, and, most recently, COVID-19 vaccination. In this reflective and critical commentary piece we reflect on seven key overarching insights we feel we have gained about this complex phenomenon from the varying studies we have conducted over the past decade. These insights comprise the following: (1) the relationship between vaccine knowledge and hesitancy...

Vaccine Hesitancy: An Old Phenomenon Still Alive in the COVID Vaccine Era

Journal of Communicable Diseases

With the introduction of vaccines, mortality and morbidity among children have significantly reduced. While a good proportion of the population accepts the vaccine, still a gap remains in the immunisation coverage in India. A growing number of people are delaying or refusing the vaccines. This phenomenon is called “vaccine hesitancy.” In spite of the tremendous effort to develop an effective COVID 19 vaccine, a major deterrent for coverage of the same is vaccine hesitancy towards the approved and future COVID-19 vaccination. Consideration and addressing the determinants for such hesitancy is the need of the hour to surge the vaccine coverage. The databases were searched for English- language articles. The data were extracted from PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar databases and websites including WHO, UNICEF etc. Keywords such as vaccine hesitancy, vaccine acceptance, parents, confidence, counselling etc were used. This review was done to explore the history and factors responsi...

Vaccine hesitancy among communities in ten countries in Asia, Africa, and South America during the COVID-19 pandemic

pathogens and public health, 2021

Vaccine hesitancy is considered one of the greatest threats to the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination programs. Lack of trust in vaccine benefits, along with concerns about side effects of the newly developed COVID-19 vaccine, might significantly contribute to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. The objective of this study was to determine the level of vaccine hesitancy among communities in particular their belief in vaccination benefits and perceived risks of new vaccines. An online cross-sectional study was conducted in 10 countries in Asia, Africa, and South America from February to May 2021. Seven items from the WHO SAGE Vaccine Hesitancy Scale were used to measure a construct of belief in vaccination benefit, and one item measured perceived riskiness of new vaccines. A logistic regression was used to determine which sociodemographic factors were associated with both vaccine hesitancy constructs. A total of 1,832 respondents were included in the final analysis of which 36.2% (range 5.6–52.2%) and 77.6% (range 38.3–91.2%) of them were classified as vaccine hesitant in terms of beliefs in vaccination benefits and concerns about new vaccines, respectively. Respondents from Pakistan had the highest vaccine hesitancy while those from Chile had the lowest. Being females, Muslim, having a non-healthcare-related job and not receiving a flu vaccination during the past 12 months were associated with poor beliefs of vaccination benefits. Those who were living in rural areas, Muslim, and those who did not received a flu vaccination during the past 12 months had relatively higher beliefs that new vaccines are riskier. High prevalence of vaccine hesitancy in some countries during the COVID-19 pandemic might hamper COVID-19 vaccination programs worldwide. Programs should be developed to promote vaccination in those sociodemographic groups with relatively high vaccine hesitancy.

Vaccine hesitancy: understanding better to address better

Israel journal of health policy research, 2016

Vaccine hesitancy is an emerging term in the socio-medical literature which describes an approach to vaccine decision making. It recognizes that there is a continuum between full acceptance and outright refusal of some or all vaccines and challenges the previous understanding of individuals or groups, as being either anti-vaccine or pro-vaccine. The behaviours responsible for vaccine hesitancy can be related to confidence, convenience and complacency. The causes of vaccine hesitancy can be described by the epidemiological triad i.e. the complex interaction of environmental- (i.e. external), agent- (i.e. vaccine) and host (or parent)- specific factors. Vaccine hesitancy is a complex and dynamic issue; future vaccination programs need to reflect and address these context-specific factors in both their design and evaluation. Many experts are of the view that it is best to counter vaccine hesitancy at the population level. They believe that it can be done by introducing more transparenc...

Vaccine hesitancy toward the COVID-19 vaccine among the Malaysian population

Journal of Experimental Biology and Agricultural Sciences

COVID-19 is a potentially fatal infectious disease that requires effective vaccines to keep the outbreak under control. Despite the ongoing efforts for an effective vaccine, public hesitancy towards vaccines is now one of the main concerns to the global health in containing this global pandemic. Thus, this preliminary study was carried out to assess the degree of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among the general public in Malaysia and to identify the underlying reasons for their hesitancy by using 5C psychological antecedents of vaccination. This study was conducted by carrying out a cross-sectional online survey for approximately two months between January to February 2021, involving 385 participants. The survey contained questions based on the 5C model proffered by WHO. The data from the survey were analyzed using Smart PLS 3 for statistical analysis, with the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). According to the findings, only 62.5 percent out of the 385 parti...

Addressing vaccine hesitancy: the LEARN approach

International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health, 2022

Immunization programs today stand at crossroads. Even as COVID vaccine campaigns continue, inequity, concerns and confusion around them seems ever expanding. While vaccine hesitancy in some form or the other has existed since the inception of vaccination, the complex and dynamic world that we live in now has resulted in hesitancy to vaccines become an outcome of myriad interactions that we encounter in our day to day lives. Factors extraneous to health systems are major determinants and it is essentially the culmination of economics, politics, science, and technology impacting human behaviors and emotions which result in a parent, family or a community arrive at the decision of whether to or not to vaccinate. Vaccine hesitancy is on the rise, it is becoming more organized and now is not just a problem of high- income countries. It is imperative that as public health advocates, academicians, policy makers, managers and implementers we recognize it and adopt a non-judgmental and non-p...