Religious objections to vaccinations have been around almost as long as vaccinations themselves. This presents a new challenge to policy makers as we get closer to a potential COVID-19 vaccine.
Current rates of vaccine hesitancy could jeopardize efforts to achieve herd immunity in the US, says Matt Motta, a political scientist who studies vaccine uptake and effective health communication.
School nurses were already overwhelmed, with hundreds of students and staff in their charge. Now, COVID-19 screenings and testing have become their priority.
Once a coronavirus vaccine is approved, billions of doses need to be manufactured. Current vaccine production is nowhere near ready, for a variety of reasons, but planning now could help.
Challenge trials – purposefully exposing volunteers to the coronavirus – could speed up the development of a vaccine. But there are serious ethical concerns with this approach.
The government should used trusted spokespeople, tailor information so it can be understood by different groups, acknowledge people’s concerns, be transparent, and seek public feedback along the way.
As grim as things are with the pandemic raging in the US and the mounting death toll, there are many reasons to be optimistic there will be a vaccine by early next year.
Those opposing vaccinations often mistrust government, science and the news media. There may be better ways to persuade them than by offering facts only.
Most of us are only starting to realise how grim this Christmas is likely to be. Not only will so many people be without jobs, but lots of usual family get-togethers will be stymied because of restricted…
The vaccine hasn’t completed phase 3 trials, so we can’t be sure it will be safe and effective for all. The Australian government’s deal is contingent on these trials being successful.
Ofer Raban, University of Oregon and Yuval Dor, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Conventional trials to test coronavirus vaccines are paradoxically slowed down by actions to curb the disease’s spread. Human challenge trials are more controversial, but could speed up the process.
A two-dose coronavirus vaccine would mean we need to produce 12-15 billion doses. This is roughly twice the world’s current total vaccine manufacturing capacity.
As Russia fast tracks a coronavirus vaccine, scientists worry about skipped safety checks – and the potential fallout for trust in vaccines if something ends up going wrong.
Whether a coronavirus vaccine involves a live virus or a carrier organism, it will probably require more than one injection. But that’s not a bad thing.
Dean Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at University of the Witwatersrand; and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand