Public awareness of the importance of childhood vaccinations is declining during a pandemic

Portugal recorded a decrease of 6.5%.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned that public perception of the importance of childhood vaccinations declined during the pandemic in 52 out of 55 countries analyzed, including Portugal, which recorded a decline of 6.5%.

“In Portugal, the perception of the importance of (vaccination) for children before COVID-19 was 98.2% and 91.7% after COVID-19, a difference of 6.5%,” reads the summary of the report “The State of the World’s Children” released today.

The United Nations Children’s Fund determined that opinion of the importance of vaccines for children fell by more than a third in South Korea, Papua New Guinea, Ghana, Senegal and Japan.

According to data collected by the Vaccine Confidence Project (VCP) and published today by UNICEF, China, India and Mexico were the only countries where perceptions of the importance of vaccines remained stable or improved.

UNICEF concludes that “in most countries, people under the age of 35 and women were more likely to report less confidence in vaccines for children after the onset of the epidemic.”

However, according to the report, despite the declines, public support for children’s vaccines “remains relatively strong”, with more than 80% of countries surveyed acknowledging their importance.

“These data are a worrying sign. We cannot allow dependence on routine immunization to become yet another casualty of the pandemic. Otherwise, the next wave of deaths could be more children with measles, diphtheria or other diseases that can happen,” UNICEF Executive Director Kathryn Russell said in a statement. prevention.”

The report notes that a combination of several factors “indicates that the risk of indecision regarding vaccines may increase,” such as uncertainty about the response to the pandemic, access to false information, and declining trust in experts and polarizing politics.

And the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) confirmed that “the decline in confidence in vaccines comes in a worrying way during the largest continuous setback in immunizing children in 30 years, prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic,” noting that “the epidemic stopped vaccinating children in almost all parts of the world.” world”.

The report also found that a total of 67 million children were not vaccinated between 2019 and 2021, with low immunization coverage in 112 countries.

Of the 67 million children who did not receive routine immunization between 2019 and 2021, 48 million did not receive a single routine vaccine – these children are referred to as “dose zeros”.

In 2022, according to UNICEF, the number of measles cases will more than double from the previous year and the number of children diagnosed with polio will increase by 16%.

“When comparing (the period from) 2019 to 2021 with the previous three-year period, there was an eight-fold increase in the number of children infected with polio, which reinforces the need to ensure vaccination efforts,” he said.

At the end of 2021, India and Nigeria – countries with declining birth rates – had the highest number of children who had not received any doses, but the increase in the number of “zero doses” was particularly noticeable in Myanmar (formerly Burma) and the Philippines.

Immunizations have saved millions of lives and protected communities from deadly disease outbreaks. We are well aware that diseases do not respect borders. To prevent future epidemics, it is essential to keep health systems strong and vaccination campaigns up to date, said Catherine Russell.

The UNICEF Executive Director emphasized that with resources still available from the COVID-19 vaccination campaign, “it is time to redirect these funds to strengthening immunization services and investing in sustainable systems for all children.”