A new survey that polled 23,000 adults across 23 countries in October 2023 reveals that intent to get a COVID-19 booster is down across the board compared with 2022. CIDRAP reports on the results.
71.6% expressed intent to get a COVID-19 booster vaccine in this new survey, compared to 87.9% in 2022. 60.8% also expressed being “more willing to get vaccinated for diseases other than COVID-19 as a result of their experiences during the pandemic, while 23.1% reported being less willing.”
The authors characterize these results as showing “a substantial proportion of individuals” that are expressing resistance to vaccination. Lead author Jeffrey V. Lazarus, PhD, CUNY professor of global health, specifically singles out “pandemic disruptions in healthcare services, the effects of the inequitable and slow global vaccine distribution, and the prevalence of misinformation and mistrust in health authorities” as possible reasons for this resistance.
Ayman El-Mohandes, PhD, a senior author of the study, says that “public health statistics show that many older people and others who are at higher risk of severe disease and death have not accepted” variant-adapted boosters.
The survey also revealed a drop in willingness to receive a booster dose “in high-income countries compared to middle-income countries.” Across all levels of income, “trust in health authorities who recommended COVID-19 vaccination was higher than trust in governments’ management of the COVID-19 pandemic, at 65.4% and 56.4%, respectively. “
