The global effort to develop and distribute COVID-19 vaccines has progressed despite myriad challenges. Yet the final step-shots in arms-meets resistance.
U-M study: Vaccine hesitancy could stand in way of COVID-19 herd immunity
Nathan Sharkey
Posted at 9:14 AM, May 12, 2021
and last updated 2021-05-12 09:14:47-04
(WXYZ) â Vaccine hesitancy could stand in the way of COVID-19 herd immunity, researchers at the University of Michigan said.
They said vaccine hesitancy could represent nearly 30% of Americans and even more in Europe. That reluctance is due to longstanding mistrust in technical, health and government institutions, and challenges efforts to achieve herd immunity and ultimately return some semblance of normalcy, according to University of Michigan researchers. Contrary to popular belief, not all vaccine hesitancy is the same. Nor is it simply the result of ignorance or antipathy towards science, the researchers wrote in the study, In Communities We Trust: Institutional Failures and Sustained Solutions for Vaccine Hesitancy.