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Survey: Richer Countries More Skeptical of Vaccines

VOA News

   The majority of people worldwide think vaccines are safe but the
   doubters make it impossible to win the war on preventable illnesses.

   A global survey by the British health research charity Wellcome found
   that about 8 in 10 people, or 79%, agreed that vaccines are safe, and 9
   in 10 worldwide say their children have been vaccinated.

   But in order to protect whole populations, immunization coverage rates
   must generally be above 90% or 95%, according to the World Health
   Organization.

   The survey asked more than 140,000 people in 140 countries about their
   attitudes toward science and medicine.

   It found that in wealthier nations, where rates of infectious diseases
   are low, people tend to be more skeptical about the safety of vaccines.
   While in poorer countries people believe vaccines to be safe, effective
   and important for children.

   France led the list of countries with the most skeptics. A third of
   French people do not agree that immunization is safe, by contrast 98%
   of those in Bangladesh believe that vaccines are both safe and
   effective.

   "And in some of these regions, greater scientific knowledge or levels
   of education is actually associated with less confidence in vaccines,"
   the report says. "This suggests that putting out more scientific
   information, or trying to educate more people, will not be enough to
   change minds on this issue."

   In North America, just 72% of those surveyed said vaccines were safe.
   The numbers were even lower in Europe -- 59% in Western Europe and 40%
   in Eastern Europe.

   "Anxieties and public concerns about the safety of vaccines have always
   existed, but the rise of social media has allowed the spread of what
   UNICEF calls the 'real infection of misinformation' to much wider
   audiences," the report says.

   Vaccines have been credited for completely ridding the world of small
   pox and coming close to eliminating other diseases, such as polio.

   But other illnesses are making a resurgence. In the U.S. alone, the
   number of measles cases this year has exceeded a thousand.

   "I guess you could call it the 'complacency effect,'" said Wellcome's
   Imran Khan, who led the study.

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