Vaccine Hesitancy and Political Populism. An Invariant Cross-European Perspective

Recio-Román, Almudena; Recio-Menéndez, Manuel; Román-González, María Victoria

doi:10.3390/ijerph182412953

Cited by 17 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…Items were written unambiguously and succinctly to adhere to questionnaire development best practices 68 , with the possible exception of item 5, "I trust that my government is able to deliver the COVID-19 vaccine to everyone, everywhere in my country, equally," which may have introduced a response bias by referring to multiple actors and actions. We encourage further testing of this tool over time, in conjunction with emerging determinants of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy 69 , and using modified items to reduce potential biases in order to fully understand its validity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Revisiting COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy around the world using data from 23 countries in 2021

et al. 2022

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The COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact daily life, including health system operations, despite the availability of vaccines that are effective in greatly reducing the risks of death and severe disease. Misperceptions of COVID-19 vaccine safety, efficacy, risks, and mistrust in institutions responsible for vaccination campaigns have been reported as factors contributing to vaccine hesitancy. This study investigated COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy globally in June 2021. Nationally representative samples of 1,000 individuals from 23 countries were surveyed. Data were analyzed descriptively, and weighted multivariable logistic regressions were used to explore associations with vaccine hesitancy. Here, we show that more than three-fourths (75.2%) of the 23,000 respondents report vaccine acceptance, up from 71.5% one year earlier. Across all countries, vaccine hesitancy is associated with a lack of trust in COVID-19 vaccine safety and science, and skepticism about its efficacy. Vaccine hesitant respondents are also highly resistant to required proof of vaccination; 31.7%, 20%, 15%, and 14.8% approve requiring it for access to international travel, indoor activities, employment, and public schools, respectively. For ongoing COVID-19 vaccination campaigns to succeed in improving coverage going forward, substantial challenges remain to be overcome. These include increasing vaccination among those reporting lower vaccine confidence in addition to expanding vaccine access in low- and middle-income countries.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Revisiting COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy around the world using data from 23 countries in 2021

et al. 2022

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“…Among these social institutions, we thought it essential to analyze the information media, the political parties, the regional or local public authorities, the national government, the national Parliament, and, due to the territorial scope of this paper, the European Union [ 24 , 31 ]. These could explain how vaccine hesitancy increases worldwide, while having highly effective vaccines [ 32 ]. Building on Recio-Román et al [ 32 ], we measured trust using a simplified scale that considers the social institutions mentioned earlier (from now on referred to as Distrust because it was reverse coded).…”

Section: Conceptual Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These could explain how vaccine hesitancy increases worldwide, while having highly effective vaccines [ 32 ]. Building on Recio-Román et al [ 32 ], we measured trust using a simplified scale that considers the social institutions mentioned earlier (from now on referred to as Distrust because it was reverse coded). Following the previous reasoning, we expected that the higher a person’s distrust in the institutions, the lower the vaccine uptake will be.…”

Section: Conceptual Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political Populism, Institutional Distrust and Vaccination Uptake: A Mediation Analysis

Recio-Román

Recio-Menéndez

Román-González

2022

IJERPH

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Politics is ubiquitous in public health, but vaccines had never been weaponized to instill distrust to gain political advantage. In pandemic and post-pandemic scenarios, populist political parties could use vaccine-related issues to generate distrust in evidence-based knowledge. Therefore, some questions arise. What impact could populist political parties impinge on vaccination uptake rates through sowing political discontent? What could the medical institutions do to avoid the adverse effects that these political strategies could infringe? For answering these research questions, we first hypothesized that vaccine uptake was negatively associated with distrust in the institutions. Furthermore, we analyzed whether populism mediates this relationship. In doing so, we hypothesized a positive association between distrust and populism, because populists, mainly fueled by politically discontent citizens, offer hope of a better future, blaming their misfortune on the actions of the elite. Additionally, we hypothesized that those citizens with a higher level of political dissatisfaction, following the claims of the populist political parties, will have lower vaccine uptake results, because they will be discouraged from making the efforts to counter the pandemic. Based on a survey carried out by the European Commission that covered 27 E.U. + U.K. countries (totaling 27,524 respondents), this paper proves that an individual’s political discontent fully mediates the relationship between distrust in institutions and vaccine uptake. Targeting the vaccine-hesitant population is quite convenient for populists because they only need to convince a minority of citizens not to be vaccinated to achieve their destabilizing goals. New outbreaks will appear if the minimum herd immunity coverage is not reached, reinforcing a vicious circle of distrust in elites, in consequence. For tackling this matter, recommendations are given to institutional managers from a social marketing standpoint.

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“…While opposition to the COVID-19 vaccination programme is mostly associated with right-wing and populist politics, particularly within the United States (Sorell & Butler, 2022), anti-vaccine views extend across the political spectrum (Roberts et al, 2021). For example, Recio-Román et al (2021) identify anti-vaccination messaging by populist politicians in Europe as a symbol of general opposition to political, intellectual, and media experts, including health professionals. These findings suggest that vaccine scepticism is driven by distrust of science, which has become a political issue advanced through politically-biased information and misinformation.…”

Section: Trust In Science Predicts Vaccine Attitudesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mediation Analysis of Conspiratorial Thinking and Anti-Expert Sentiments on Vaccine Willingness

Blackburn¹,

Han²,

Gelpí³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Objective: Vaccines are an effective means to reduce the spread of diseases, but they are sometimes met with hesitancy that needs to be understood.Methods: In this study, we analysed data from a large, cross-country survey conducted between June and August 2021 in 43 countries (N = 15,740) to investigate the roles of trust in government and science in shaping vaccine attitudes and willingness to be vaccinated. Results: We found that, despite significant variability between countries, both forms of institutional trust were associated with a higher willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Further, we found that conspiratorial thinking and anti-expert sentiments predicted reduced trust in government and science, respectively, and that trust mediated the relationship between these beliefs and ultimate vaccine attitudes. Although most countries displayed similar relationships between conspiratorial thinking and anti-expert sentiments, trust, and vaccine attitudes, we identified three countries (Brazil, Honduras, and Russia) with significantly differing effects of these variables. Conclusions: We discuss and propose various additional local factors that future research should consider to understand how trust and attitudes towards governmental and scientific institutions may shape individuals’ ultimate vaccine attitudes and decisions.

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Vaccine Hesitancy and Political Populism. An Invariant Cross-European Perspective

Cited by 17 publications

References 61 publications

Revisiting COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy around the world using data from 23 countries in 2021

Revisiting COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy around the world using data from 23 countries in 2021

Political Populism, Institutional Distrust and Vaccination Uptake: A Mediation Analysis

Mediation Analysis of Conspiratorial Thinking and Anti-Expert Sentiments on Vaccine Willingness

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