All articles tagged with #vaccine confidence
Since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. became health secretary, there has been a noticeable increase in the influence of vaccine skeptics within the Department of Health and Human Services, including the appointment of individuals from the anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense, raising concerns about the undermining of public health efforts and vaccine confidence.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a polio survivor, criticized efforts to undermine public confidence in the polio vaccine, emphasizing its life-saving impact and warning that anyone seeking Senate confirmation should avoid associating with such efforts.
A new report by UNICEF warns that the public perception of the importance of vaccines for children declined during the COVID-19 pandemic in 52 out of 55 countries studied. The report reveals that the perception of the importance of vaccines for children declined by more than a third in some countries after the start of the pandemic. The decline in confidence comes amid the largest sustained backslide in childhood immunization in 30 years, fuelled by the COVID-19 pandemic. 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.