The refusal to vaccinate against COVID-19 in the Spanish population

Europe is experiencing an increasing circulation of influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Along with COVID-19, these viruses are having a high impact on health services and populations during this boreal winter. In this context, it highlights how important it is for vulnerable groups to get vaccinated against influenza and COVID-19, as well as for everyone to protect themselves and others from infection.

One of the difficulties is precisely the rejection of vaccination. A study carried out by researchers from the Open University of Catalonia (UOC, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya) has evaluated reluctance to the COVID-19 vaccine in Spain during the spring-autumn 2021 campaign, both in the general population and in health professionals, and provides information on how to reduce it.

“The objective of this work has been to make a faithful portrait of a specific moment —the first vaccination campaign against COVID-19— to analyze what could be improved in the future”, details Salvador Macip i Maresma, a doctor and professor at the Health Sciences Studies at the UOC, and director and researcher at the Cancer Mechanisms and Aging Laboratory at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom. Macip has participated in this work, led by Francesc Saigí Rubió, researcher at the UOC’s eHealth Center and director of the World Health Organization (WHO) collaborating center for digital health, Hans Eguia, doctoral student of the Sciences of the Health and professor of the UOC’s Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences and Marina Bosque, researcher at the eHealth Center and professor of the UOC’s Department of Health.

Context of doubts and suspicions

During the spring of 2021, a massive vaccination campaign for the general population began in Europe to combat the pandemic caused by COVID-19. The severity of the disease, the speed with which the various vaccines were made available to society, and the distrust in pharmaceutical laboratories created a context of doubts and suspicions about these new drugs and their widespread application, which came to provoke the rejection of these therapies by thousands of people.

Social networks were filled with hoaxes and false information (fake news) with the aim of generating an environment of mistrust regarding vaccines and the new methods that had been used in their manufacture, such as messenger RNA technology. Specific cases such as thrombi, supposedly caused by the inoculation of this innovative treatment, were even raised to the general standard.

Vaccination reluctance

To carry out the study, during the spring of 2021, the experts surveyed more than 4,300 people through social networks, 500 of whom were health professionals from different branches. At that time, 48.6% of the general population participants were vaccinated against COVID-19, and 6.5% of the general population were reluctant to be vaccinated. However, as people got older, the percentage of those vaccinated increased.

“The youngest or those with the least training were the most reluctant to get vaccinated, probably because they were the social group that perceived the least risk of having problems derived from COVID-19, with which they saw fewer benefits from the vaccine,” says the expert. Likewise, Macip affirms that the educational level and the fact of having medical knowledge “reduce reluctance” before these innovative treatments.

For their part, in the case of health professionals, the percentage of those vaccinated against COVID-19 rose to 95%. “Health professionals had the most doubts about the efficacy and safety of the vaccine. However, they were the least reluctant to get vaccinated, possibly because they better understood the consequences of not getting vaccinated and were more familiar with the general concept of a vaccine.” highlights Macip.

Another of the aspects that were evaluated during this work was the acceptance or rejection of the vaccine depending on the laboratory that had manufactured it. In this regard, most of the participants did not show a preference for a particular vaccine. However, people who were vaccinated with Pfizer’s therapy said they had done so with their “preferred vaccine.”

Pfizer vaccines against COVID-19. (Photo: USAF/Rebeckah Medeiros)

In the case of Europe, due to the campaigns that were carried out, there was a preference for vaccines based on messenger RNA, or mRNA, over the other types of therapies that were offered to the population at that time. Regarding the context that was perceived at that time of the pandemic, the experts highlight that “the acceptance of the coronavirus vaccination was not affected by the anti-vaccine movements or by the misinformation of some media.”

Information to improve confidence in treatments

Despite the fact that these data are not especially negative, there is still a significant percentage of the population that rejects this type of vaccine. This group can put their own well-being at risk and even create a public health problem. “Ignorance is what generates the most reluctance. But good information can even overcome the attraction generated by anti-vaccination networks,” says the researcher.

In fact, according to the World Health Organization, vaccine refusal was a “frequent” problem, even before the pandemic, and is considered one of the top ten threats to global health.

To avoid this, experts stress that truthful, contrasted, transparent, and agile information is the most effective method for raising awareness among the population and minimizing rejection and reluctance to this type of therapy. In fact, rejection and reluctance have been shown to decrease during vaccination campaigns, by understanding the functionality and effectiveness of this measure. “Information campaigns are essential. The more you know about a new drug, the less you fear it,” concludes Macip.

The study is titled “Hesitation about coronavirus vaccines in healthcare professionals and general population in Spain. And it has been published in the academic journal PLoS ONE. (Source: UOC)