January 10, 2023 – Acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines has increased 20% within the United States over the past 12 months, with 8 in 10 people now saying they've been vaccinated or are willing to get vaccinated, in response to results from a latest global survey.
The changing attitudes put the U.S. according to vaccine acceptance in other major countries. For each vaccines and booster shots, acceptance was defined within the survey as receiving at the least one dose or being willing to take one when it becomes available.
Vaccine acceptance has also increased dramatically in France, India and Nigeria. India, China and Singapore reported the best vaccine acceptance rates, with 98.3% of Indians saying they've been vaccinated or plan to get vaccinated.
Despite improved uptake rates, the authors expressed concern concerning the global view on booster vaccinations, misinformation fueling vaccine hesitancy, and the high number of individuals reporting taking ivermectin, which is often used to treat parasites in animals and isn't approved for the treatment of COVID.
“The most promising finding of the 2022 global survey is that COVID-19 vaccine acceptance continued to increase in most countries surveyed, reaching 79.1% overall,” the authors wrote. “However, the wide variability in acceptance rates we report could jeopardize efforts to contain the pandemic.”
The survey involved 23,000 people from 23 countries, representing nearly 60% of the world's population. Responses were collected from June 29 to July 10, 2022. This is the third 12 months the study has been conducted. It was published Monday within the journal Natural medicine.
Acceptance of the booster vaccination within the USA was also comparable to the worldwide acceptance of about 87%.
While within the USA the main target has recently been on booster vaccinations and 92% of individuals aged 18 and over have received at the least one dose of vaccine, in response to CDC data.
Other attitudes of Americans reported within the study were:
- 29% say they're paying less attention to latest COVID information in comparison with last 12 months.
- 67% said they'd most prefer to forestall COVID through vaccination, while 11% said they'd slightly forgo vaccines or prescribed drugs and as an alternative treat COVID “at home with sleep, fluids, Tylenol, etc.”
- 23% are less more likely to get vaccinated because they consider the disease has develop into less serious.
People who're hesitant to get vaccinated have lower levels of education, express distrust of science and government, and consider misinformation, the authors said.
Of those surveyed globally, nearly 37% said they or a member of the family had had COVID previously 12 months, and about one in 4 took medications to treat the disease, corresponding to antivirals like paxlovid or monoclonal antibodies. Globally, 27% of individuals taking medications said they'd used ivermectin, and within the U.S., nearly 12% of individuals said they'd used it.
“Our respondents reported using ivermectin as frequently as approved medications and products, even though ivermectin is not recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) and other leading organizations for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19,” the authors wrote. “Further efforts will be needed to eliminate the use of ivermectin and other medications without proven efficacy and with potential toxicity.”