Evidence from 22 African countries shows low trust in authorities is affecting vaccine uptake )The Print)

The Print published an op-ed by Senior research fellow Kalle Hirvonen and his co-authors that states while immunization saves millions of lives each year, progress in vaccine coverage remains highly uneven, both between and within countries. Despite considerable progress over the past two decades, the situation is particularly worrying in Africa. Nearly half of the world’s unvaccinated and under-vaccinated children live in this region. Vaccine hesitancy is not new. Mistrust in authorities has been shown to negatively affect vaccine uptake in high and upper middle-income countries such as Russia, the US, France and Croatia. But there is less research quantifying vaccine hesitancy in lower income countries. Our latest research shows that child vaccination rates in African countries are lower in areas where the local population displays high levels of mistrust in local authorities.