Department of Sociology, University of Bucharest, Bucharest 030167, Romania.
Interdisciplinary School of Doctoral Studies, University of Bucharest, Bucharest 050107, Romania.
Vaccine. 2022 Nov 2;40(46):6670-6679. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.09.039. Epub 2022 Oct 7.
The anti-vaccination movement, vaccine hesitancy, and wavering vaccination confidence have increasingly become matters of public interest, in parallel with an increasing normalization of representations of vaccination as risky. In this study, we used data on vaccination beliefs and behaviors from two Eurobarometer surveys to classify attitudes towards vaccination and to discuss comparability, acquiescence, and other measurement issues. Through cluster analysis, we found that individuals in the European Union (EU27) can be classified into five opinion types, differentiating the poles ("vaccine-trusting" and "vaccine-distrusting") from the "hesitant & free choice" cluster and from two relatively uncommitted clusters, the "agreeable" (or acquiescent) and the "fence-sitters." Opinion configurations on vaccination were linked to the broader social structures of age, gender, and educational attainment, to experiences of adult vaccination, and trust in different information sources. We found that trust, distrust, and confusion about vaccination have permeated all social strata in EU countries. The pandemic years have amplified uncertainty concerning vaccine safety and its effectiveness. We also noticed a decrease of trust in the voices of mainstream medical experts during the pandemic period, from about 92 % in 2019 to 73 % in 2021, and a significant increase in people who declared that they "don't know" whom to trust about vaccine information, ranging from 1 % to about 13 %. Measurements of vaccination confidence in Europe should control for acquiescence, through positively and negatively formulated items, and ensure comparability in time. We strongly recommend the inclusion of a battery of critical items in all future European Commission-funded surveys on vaccination to allow the monitoring of European public confidence in vaccination and in the relevant information sources, including trust in pharmaceutical companies; this will provide an avenue for re-establishing a broader confidence among citizens, health authorities, and specialists.
反疫苗运动、疫苗犹豫以及对疫苗接种信心的动摇日益成为公众关注的焦点，与此同时，疫苗接种被描绘为具有风险的情况也越来越普遍。在这项研究中，我们使用了来自两项欧洲民意调查的疫苗接种信念和行为数据，对疫苗接种态度进行分类，并讨论了可比性、默许以及其他测量问题。通过聚类分析，我们发现欧盟 27 国的个人可以分为五类观点类型，将两极（“信任疫苗”和“不信任疫苗”）与“犹豫且自由选择”群体以及两个相对不坚定的群体（“同意”或默许）和“骑墙派”区分开来。接种疫苗的观点配置与年龄、性别和教育程度等更广泛的社会结构、成人接种疫苗的经历以及对不同信息来源的信任有关。我们发现，信任、不信任和对疫苗接种的困惑已经渗透到欧盟国家的所有社会阶层。大流行时期加剧了人们对疫苗安全性及其有效性的不确定性。我们还注意到，在大流行期间，人们对主流医学专家声音的信任度从 2019 年的约 92%下降到 2021 年的 73%，而宣称他们“不知道”应该相信谁的疫苗信息的人显著增加，从 1%增加到 13%左右。欧洲疫苗信心的测量应该通过正反两面的项目来控制默许，确保时间上的可比性。我们强烈建议在所有未来由欧盟委员会资助的疫苗接种调查中纳入一整套关键项目，以监测欧洲公众对疫苗接种和相关信息来源的信心，包括对制药公司的信任；这将为在公民、卫生当局和专家中重新建立更广泛的信心提供途径。
