Will achieving herd immunity be a road to success to end the COVID-19 pandemic?

Kwok, Kin On; McNeil, Edward; Tsoi, Margaret Ting Fong; Wei, Vivian; Wong, Samuel Yeung Shan; Tang, Julian W.

doi:10.1016/j.jinf.2021.06.007

Cited by 23 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Recent studies suggest that vaccination is very effective in driving down the transmission of the disease ( Baden et al., 2021 ; Voysey et al., 2021 ), but there are also uncertainties about the effectiveness of current vaccines to current and future variants. Vaccination is an essential pathway to safely achieve herd immunity against COVID-19 ( World Health Organization, 2020a ), but the herd immunity equation may be affected with the emergence of variants ( Kwok et al., 2021a ) and vaccine breakthrough infections ( Hacisuleyman et al., 2021 ). Latest results suggests that COVID-19 vaccination is still considered as effective for protection against moderate to severe disease and deaths from the current variants of concerns such as Alpha and Delta ( Lopez Bernal et al., 2021 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Profiling vaccine believers and skeptics in nurses: A latent profile analysis

Leung

Wei

et al. 2022

International Journal of Nursing Studies

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Background A tailored immunization program is deemed more successful in encouraging vaccination. Understanding the profiles of vaccine hesitancy constructs in nurses can help policymakers in devising such programs. Encouraging vaccination in nurses is an important step in building public confidence in the upcoming COVID-19 and influenza vaccination campaigns. Objectives Using a person-centered approach, this study aimed to reveal the profiles of the 5C psychological constructs of vaccine hesitancy (confidence, complacency, constraints, calculation, and collective responsibility) among Hong Kong nurses. Design Cross-sectional online survey. Settings With the promotion of a professional nursing organization, we invited Hong Kong nurses to complete an online survey between mid-March and late April 2020 during the COVID-19 outbreak. Participants 1,193 eligible nurses (mean age = 40.82, SD = 10.49; with 90.0% being female) were included in the analyses. Methods In the online survey, we asked the invited nurses to report their demographics, COVID-19-related work demands (including the supply of personal protective equipment, work stress, and attitudes towards workplace infection control policies), the 5C vaccine hesitancy components, seasonal influenza vaccine uptake history, and the COVID-19 vaccine uptake intention. Latent profile analysis was employed to identify distinct vaccine hesitancy antecedent subgroups. Results Results revealed five profiles, including “believers” (31%; high confidence, collective responsibility; low complacency, constraint), “skeptics” (11%; opposite to the believers), “outsiders” (14%; low calculation, collective responsibility), “contradictors” (4%; high in all 5C constructs), and “middlers” (40%; middle in all 5C constructs). Believers were less educated, reported more long-term illnesses, greater work stress, higher perceived personal protective equipment sufficiency, and stronger trust in government than skeptics. They were older and had higher perceived personal protective equipment sufficiency than middlers. Also, believers were older and had greater work stress than outsiders. From the highest to the lowest on vaccination uptake and intention were believers and contradictors, then middlers and outsiders, and finally skeptics. Conclusion Different immunization programs can be devised based on the vaccine hesitancy profiles and their predictors. Despite both profiles being low in vaccination uptake and intention, our results distinguished between outsiders and skeptics regarding their different levels of information-seeking engagement. The profile structure reveals the possibilities in devising tailored interventions based on their 5C characteristics. The current data could serve as the reference for the identification of individual profile memb...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Profiling vaccine believers and skeptics in nurses: A latent profile analysis

Leung

Wei

et al. 2022

International Journal of Nursing Studies

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…However, the exact proportion of immune people needed to achieve herd immunity is difficult to estimate, as it depends on the type of virus, along with many other factors. Japan is a good example, being one of the countries which has a large gap between the proportion of people with immunity needed to achieve herd immunity and the proportion of people who are already immune [6]) (Note that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which had not been approved in Japan as of November 2021, requires only one dose). However, in some countries, full vaccination rates had drastically increased by summer or autumn 2021.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who Got Vaccinated for COVID-19? Evidence from Japan

2021

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Vaccination has been critical to reducing infections and deaths during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. While previous studies have investigated attitudes toward taking a vaccine, studies on the determinants of COVID-19 vaccination behavior are scant. We examine what characteristics, including socioeconomic and non-economic factors, are associated with vaccination behavior for COVID-19 in Japan. We use a large nationwide online survey with approximately 10,000 participants. As of September 2021, 85% of the respondents said that they had received or would receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Employing logistic regression analysis on vaccination behavior, we found that vaccination rates are higher among those who are older, married, educated, and/or work in a large company. On the other hand, vaccination rates tend to be lower among the self-employed, younger women, and those with poor mental health. Income did not significantly correlate with vaccination. Medical workers were found to have a relatively high rate of vaccination. Although attitude towards risk and time preference were not crucial factors for vaccination, fear of infection, infection prevention behavior, and agreement with government policies on behavioral restrictions in crisis situations positively correlated with vaccination.

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“…It also helps to identify more cases, especially asymptomatically infected individuals who do not usually show COVID-19 symptoms, to design the most effective control strategies to mitigate the epidemics. High estimation of seroprevalence of COVID-19 would indicate that most of the population have been infected, and the herd immunity threshold will likely be reached ( George et al, 2021 ; Kwok et al, 2021 ). Hence, the control efforts should be emphasized on recovering for the damages caused by this deadly virus, which includes suspension of control and intervention programmes, immunization and primary health care services for other infectious diseases; as well as rebuilding for better socio-economic development.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%