Hesitancy for COVID-19 Vaccines and Its Implications for Routine Immunisation

Abstract

Vaccine hesitancy is a continuum, conditional on confidence (on vaccine or healthcare authorities), complacency, structural or psychological constraints, calculation or evaluation, vaccination convenience, and aspects pertaining to collective responsibility. The present chapter documents hesitancy to COVID-19 vaccination; and elaborates on factors that contribute to both hesitancy (barriers and concerns) and acceptance (enablers) rates, disaggregated by populations. We also discuss the multimodal nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and its vaccine hesitancy-related implications on routine immunisation. The pandemic and related movement restrictions or other mitigation measures, partial or complete suspension of vaccination clinics or fear of COVID-19, stress, anxiety, and depression may have limited parents’ access to avail routine immunisation vaccines for their children. Also, the impact of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is not limited to pandemic vaccines but may continue to extend to routinely recommended vaccines.