Vaccination hesitancy is about lack of trust. Compulsion is not the answer | Kenan Malik

Better to build social solidarity than to dismiss reluctance to be immunised as ignoranceCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverage“If a strain as deadly as the 1918 influenza emerges and people’s hesitancy to get vaccinated remains at the level it is today, a debilitating and fatal disease will spread.” Sowrote Heidi Larson in 2018. Larson is director of the London-basedVaccine Confidence Project and probably the most knowledgeable person on the question of “vaccine hesitancy” – the unwillingness of some to get vaccinated.Two years after Larson wrote those words, we do have a pandemic that so far has taken more than a million lives, including at least 50,000 in the UK. We also have thepossibility of a vaccine, the first of a number that could transform the Covid-19 landscape. Whether they do depends not just on how effective they are, but also on the willingness of people to be vaccinated. In the US, just half the population seemsso inclined. In Britain, the figure is higher – about70%– but still probably insufficient to generate herd immunity.Continue reading...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Vaccines and immunisation Health Society Coronavirus Pfizer Pharmaceuticals industry World news Science Infectious diseases Medical research UK news Source Type: news