Ross G. Menzies, University of Technology Sydney and Rachel E. Menzies, University of Sydney Vaccines save lives, and have been doing so since the development of the smallpox vaccine more than 200 years ago. However, for vaccines to keep entire communities safe they need to be taken up by very large proportions of the population. Only then can the vaccinated …
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COVID-19: how to tackle vaccine hesitancy among BAME groups
Samantha Vanderslott, University of Oxford; Andrew Pollard, University of Oxford, and Seilesh Kadambari, University of Oxford Some of the highest rates of death and serious illness during the pandemic have been among Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities. According to government data, Black ethnic groups have the highest diagnosis rates of COVID-19 and people of Bangladeshi ethnicity have twice …
Read More »AstraZeneca vaccine: careless talk has dented confidence and uptake in Europe
Jonathan Kennedy, Queen Mary University of London At the start of the year, one of the main causes of the EU’s slow rollout of COVID-19 vaccines was lower than expected supplies from AstraZeneca. Fast forward a few weeks and the EU’s vaccination programme still trails far behind the UK and US, but politicians and those in public health now have …
Read More »Why herd immunity may be impossible without vaccinating children against COVID-19
Rodney E. Rohde, Texas State University U.S. Census Bureau, CC BY-ND It may be summer before children under 16 can be vaccinated against COVID-19 in the United States. That’s a problem for reaching herd immunity quickly. Children are a significant portion of the population – roughly 65 million are under the age of 16, making up 20% of people in …
Read More »Should children get the COVID-19 vaccine?
Establishing public trust is now central to any decisions regarding the inoculation of our child population. (Shutterstock) Michael Hefferon, Queen’s University, Ontario As COVID-19 vaccination for adults rolls out, it’s time to consider the wisdom (or otherwise) of vaccinating our children. Indications to vaccinate a child population could include: A pandemic causing severe and widespread illness/mortality in the child population. …
Read More »Coronavirus vaccine: understanding trial results, roll-out and what happens next – an expert guide
Rob Reddick, The Conversation Coronavirus vaccines are being administered. Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine was the first to finish the final stage of testing – known as phase 3 – and the full results have been published. Having assessed the data, countries are beginning to authorise this vaccine for public use and roll it out. Others are not too far behind. The …
Read More »Coronavirus vaccine: understanding trial results, roll-out and what happens next – an expert guide
Rob Reddick, The Conversation Coronavirus vaccines are being administered. Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine was the first to finish the final stage of testing – known as phase 3 – and the full results have been published. Having assessed the data, countries are beginning to authorise this vaccine for public use and roll it out. Others are not too far behind. The …
Read More »Current rates of vaccine hesitancy in the US could mean a long road to normalcy
Matt Motta is a political scientist at Oklahoma State University. He studies the social and political determinants of anti-science attitudes, and investigating their policy impact. In this Q&A he answers questions about the current levels of vaccine hesitancy in the US and how that might affect the country’s ability to achieve herd immunity after a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available.
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