Centre for Global Public Health, Institute of Population Health Sciences, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, Yvonne Carter Building, 58 Turner Street, London, E1 2AB, UK.
Paediatr Drugs. 2020 Apr;22(2):105-111. doi: 10.1007/s40272-020-00385-4.
Vaccines are one of the great achievements of medical science. They have eradicated or drastically reduced the incidence of once common diseases. It is estimated that vaccines save between 2 and 6 million lives each year, but 1.5 million more lives could be saved if coverage was increased. Vaccine hesitancy, defined by the World Health Organization as "the reluctance or refusal to vaccinate despite the availability of vaccines", is a barrier to increasing coverage that has received a great deal of attention from the media and public health academics in recent years. It is argued that many parents are reluctant to vaccinate their children because of concerns about vaccine safety, despite reassurances from doctors and public health authorities. Vaccine hesitancy is a particularly big problem in high-income countries. Observers have noted that the internet and social media play an important role in spreading fears about vaccine safety. It is, however, important to understand how the wider social and political context has influenced concerns about vaccine safety. Vaccine hesitancy appears to be one aspect of a broader breakdown in trust between some sections of the population on the one hand, and elites and experts on the other.
疫苗是医学科学的重大成就之一。它们已经消除或大大减少了曾经常见疾病的发病率。据估计，疫苗每年可以挽救 200 到 600 万人的生命，但如果接种率提高，还可以挽救 150 万人的生命。疫苗犹豫是世界卫生组织定义的“尽管疫苗可用，但仍不愿或拒绝接种疫苗”，这是增加接种率的一个障碍，近年来受到媒体和公共卫生学者的广泛关注。有人认为，许多父母不愿意给孩子接种疫苗，是因为担心疫苗的安全性，尽管医生和公共卫生当局一再保证。疫苗犹豫在高收入国家是一个特别大的问题。观察家指出，互联网和社交媒体在传播对疫苗安全性的担忧方面发挥了重要作用。然而，重要的是要了解更广泛的社会和政治背景是如何影响对疫苗安全性的担忧的。疫苗犹豫似乎是一方面是一些人群与精英和专家之间信任破裂的一个方面。
