Worldwide studies continuously confirm that vaccination is a safe and effective method of combating various infectious diseases and a key component of global public health programs. However, the vaccination status of a population is often lower than needed to achieve collective immunity. A key reason that affects lower vaccination coverage is vaccine hesitancy, identified as one of the ten greatest threats to global public health. So far, vaccine hesitancy has been most investigated in the context of parental refusal of children vaccination. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the development of its vaccines put vaccine hesitancy further in the focus of investigators as well as healthcare workers and policy makers. We have witnessed its immediate effects on public health and mortality rates as well as even more extreme ways of vaccine refusal than previously documented. The aim of this review article is to summarize relevant scientific understandings of vaccine hesitancy, including its psychological determinants, insights from parental refusal of child vaccination, medical distrust, and conspiracy theories related to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as recommendations for public health services for combating vaccine hesitancy.
Keywords: COVID-19; conspiracy beliefs; pandemic; vaccine hesitancy.