Influence of COVID-19 on trust in routine immunization, health information sources and pandemic preparedness in 23 countries in 2023

Jeffrey V Lazarus; Trenton M White; Katarzyna Wyka; Scott C Ratzan; Kenneth Rabin; Heidi J Larson; Federico Martinon-Torres; Ernest Kuchar; Salim S Abdool Karim; Tamara Giles-Vernick; Selina Müller; Carolina Batista; Nellie Myburgh; Beate Kampmann; Ayman El-Mohandes

doi:10.1038/s41591-024-02939-2

Influence of COVID-19 on trust in routine immunization, health information sources and pandemic preparedness in 23 countries in 2023

Nat Med. 2024 Apr 29. doi: 10.1038/s41591-024-02939-2. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Jeffrey V Lazarus^{1

2

3}, Trenton M White^{4

5}, Katarzyna Wyka⁴, Scott C Ratzan⁴, Kenneth Rabin⁴, Heidi J Larson^{6

7}, Federico Martinon-Torres⁸, Ernest Kuchar⁹, Salim S Abdool Karim^{10

11}, Tamara Giles-Vernick¹², Selina Müller¹³, Carolina Batista^{14

15}, Nellie Myburgh¹⁶, Beate Kampmann¹⁷, Ayman El-Mohandes⁴

Affiliations

¹ Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, City University of New York, New York City, NY, USA. Jeffrey.Lazarus@cuny.sph.edu.
² Barcelona Institute for Global Health, Barcelona, Spain. Jeffrey.Lazarus@cuny.sph.edu.
³ Hospital Clínic, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. Jeffrey.Lazarus@cuny.sph.edu.
⁴ Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, City University of New York, New York City, NY, USA.
⁵ Barcelona Institute for Global Health, Barcelona, Spain.
⁶ London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
⁷ Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
⁸ University Clinic Hospital of Santiago de Compostela, Healthcare Research Institute of Santiago (IDIS), Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
⁹ Department of Pediatrics with Clinical Assessment Unit, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
¹⁰ Centre for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa, Durban, South Africa.
¹¹ Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York City, NY, USA.
¹² Anthropology and Ecology of Disease Emergence Unit, Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, Paris, France.
¹³ Heidelberg Institute of Global Health, Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany.
¹⁴ Baraka Impact Finance, Geneva, Switzerland.
¹⁵ Movement Health Foundation, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
¹⁶ Wits Health Consortium, Johannesburg, South Africa.
¹⁷ Charité Centre for Global Health, Berlin, Germany.

PMID: 38684861
DOI: 10.1038/s41591-024-02939-2

Abstract

It is unclear how great a challenge pandemic and vaccine fatigue present to public health. We assessed perspectives on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and routine immunization as well as trust in pandemic information sources and future pandemic preparedness in a survey of 23,000 adults in 23 countries in October 2023. The participants reported a lower intent to get a COVID-19 booster vaccine in 2023 (71.6%), compared with 2022 (87.9%). A total of 60.8% expressed being more willing to get vaccinated for diseases other than COVID-19 as a result of their experience during the pandemic, while 23.1% reported being less willing. Trust in 11 selected sources of vaccine information each averaged less than 7 on a 10-point scale with one's own doctor or nurse and the World Health Organization, averaging a 6.9 and 6.5, respectively. Our findings emphasize that vaccine hesitancy and trust challenges remain for public health practitioners, underscoring the need for targeted, culturally sensitive health communication strategies.