scholarly journals Barrier Gesture Relaxation during Vaccination Campaign in France: Modelling Impact of Waning Immunity

COVID ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 472-488
Author(s):  
Carole Vignals ◽  
David W. Dick ◽  
Rodolphe Thiébaut ◽  
Linda Wittkop ◽  
Mélanie Prague ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Vaccination Campaign ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Public Health Policies ◽  
Susceptibility To Infection ◽  
Full Relaxation ◽  
Severe Infections ◽  
Waning Immunity ◽  
Age Structured ◽  
Surveillance Database

Non-pharmaceutical interventions have been implemented intermittently for more than a year in most countries of the world to mitigate the COVID-19 epidemic. In France, while the vaccination campaign is progressing, the French government has decided to remove many public health restrictions such as business closure, lockdowns, and curfews. Nonetheless, social distancing, mask wearing, and hand washing (also called barrier gestures) are still recommended. We utilize an age-structured compartmental SEIR model that takes into account the SARS-CoV-2 waning immunity, vaccination, and increased transmissibility from variants of concern to estimate if barrier gestures can be relaxed without causing a resurgence of severe infections. This model assumes that the susceptibility to infection is a function of immunity status, which depends on initial infection severity and vaccination status. It is calibrated on confirmed COVID-19 cases from the French surveillance database, and accounts for changes in contact behaviors due to the implementation of nation-wide public health policies. We study the partial and full relaxation of barrier gestures occurring from August to December 2021 under various immunity duration assumptions. Maintaining the application of barrier gestures appears essential to avoid a resurgence of severe infections that would exceed French health care capacities, while surmounting vaccine hesitancy represents the key to consider their relaxation. Immunity duration assumptions significantly influence the short-term dynamic of the epidemic, which should be considered for further modelling.

scholarly journals Barrier gesture relaxation during vaccination campaign in France: modelling impact of waning immunity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carole Vignals ◽  
David W Dick ◽  
Rodolphe Thiébaut ◽  
Linda Wittkop ◽  
Mélanie Prague ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Vaccination Campaign ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Public Health Policies ◽  
Susceptibility To Infection ◽  
Full Relaxation ◽  
Severe Infections ◽  
Waning Immunity ◽  
Age Structured ◽  
Surveillance Database

Non-pharmaceutical interventions have been implemented intermittently for more than a year in most countries of the world to mitigate COVID-19 epidemic. In France, while the vaccination campaign is progressing, the French government has decided to remove many public health restrictions such as business closure, lockdowns and curfews. Nonetheless, social distancing, mask wearing, and hand washing (also called barrier gestures) are still recommended. We utilize an age-structured compartmental SEIR model that takes into account SARS-CoV-2 waning immunity, vaccination, and increased transmissibility from variants of concern, to estimate if barrier gestures can be relaxed without causing a resurgence of severe infections. This model assumes that susceptibility to infection is a function of immunity status, which depends on initial infection severity and vaccination status. It is calibrated on confirmed COVID-19 cases from the French surveillance database, and accounts for changes in contact behaviors due to implementation of nation-wide public health policies. We study partial and full relaxation of barrier gestures occurring from August to December 2021 under various immunity duration assumptions. Maintaining application of barrier gestures appears essential to avoid a resurgence of severe infections that would exceed health care capacities, while surmounting vaccine hesitancy represents the key to consider their relaxation. Immunity duration assumptions significantly influence the short-term dynamic of the epidemic which should be considered for further modelling.

scholarly journals 80 Archetypes of vaccine hesitant caregivers towards COVID-19 immunization during a global pandemic: A qualitative study

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. e58-e59
Author(s):  
Jordan Yeo ◽  
Caitlyn Gudmundsen ◽  
Sajjad Fazel ◽  
Alex Corrigan ◽  
Madison Fullerton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Vaccination Campaign ◽  
Theoretical Domains Framework ◽  
Implementation Strategies ◽  
Pediatric Care ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Discrete Subgroups

Abstract Primary Subject area Public Health and Preventive Medicine Background As Canada embarks on its rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, vaccine hesitancy has the potential to hamper success of the vaccination campaign. Multiple surveys show that the number of Canadians willing to take the vaccine is insufficient to achieve herd immunity. Therefore, governments and health agencies are looking for solutions to increase vaccination uptake. Obtaining a better understanding of the perspective of those who are vaccine-hesitant is critical to developing successful implementation strategies for COVID-19 vaccination. Objectives To explore COVID-19 vaccination determinants among hesitant caregivers and describe categories of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Design/Methods We conducted 23 semi-structured telephone interviews with parents recruited from a tertiary pediatric care centre. Seventeen participants had previously attended a specialty clinic to discuss vaccine hesitancy; the remaining were recruited from an infectious diseases follow-up clinic. The interview guide was structured around the Theoretical Domains Framework, assessing 14 behavioural constructs to identify specific determinants that guide behaviour change. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed by two independent data coders using a pragmatic inductive approach. Recurring themes were noted among subgroups of participants, who were subsequently divided into categories based on their underlying concerns. Results Five archetypes of vaccine-hesitant caregivers emerged in our data (Table 1). 1). “Bubble Dwellers” perceive themselves to be safe by following public health recommendations, and distinguish themselves from higher-risk groups to whom the vaccine should first be offered. 2). “Worriers and Delayers” identify the pandemic as a threat and are generally supportive of vaccines, but are concerned about side effects and issues surrounding vaccine development and prefer to delay vaccination. 3). “Need-for-Normals” are more concerned about social isolation and the economy than the direct effects of the COVID-19 virus, but express that the idea of a “return to normal” may sway their opinions regarding the vaccine. 4). “Exceptionalists” hold personal misperceptions of vaccine contraindications due to comorbidities or previous experiences with vaccination, and are concerned that the current rollout invokes a “one size fits all” model that does not apply to their circumstances. 5. “Freedom Fighters” view the pandemic as a hoax, are anti-establishment, and believe the information they have been provided is not convincing for them to adopt the vaccine. Conclusion The evolving pandemic provides a unique opportunity to understand determinants of vaccination intention in the vaccine hesitant population. Our qualitative study is unique in that we were able to draw upon pre-identified vaccine hesitant individuals to explore their perspectives around COVID-19 immunization. We propose that rather than viewing these individuals as one homogenous group, policymakers and health professionals address these discrete subgroups with specific communication tools and information. We are hopeful that our results will help tailor implementation strategies that are targeted to different vaccine hesitancy archetypes, as the vaccine is made available to the general public in the coming year.

scholarly journals COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in the LGBTQ+ Population: A Systematic Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 872-887
Author(s):  
Ishan Garg ◽  
Hamza Hanif ◽  
Nismat Javed ◽  
Ramsha Abbas ◽  
Samir Mirza ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
Common Factors ◽  
Vaccine Safety ◽  
Health Policies ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Public Health Policies ◽  
Building Trust ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
History Of

The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has disproportionately impacted lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ+) people. Despite developing safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines, LGBTQ+ communities still faces challenges due to inequitable access and vaccine hesitancy. Vaccine hesitancy is a delay in the acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite the availability of vaccination services. Various studies have explored and tried to address factors influencing vaccine hesitancy. However, the LGBTQ+ population remains under- and misrepresented in many of these studies. According to the few studies that have focused on the LGBTQ+ population, several factors influencing vaccine hesitancy have been identified, with the most common factors in studies being concern about vaccine safety, vaccine efficacy, and history of bad experiences with healthcare providers. In order to rebuild the confidence of LGBTQ+ people in vaccines, governments, healthcare policymakers, and healthcare providers need to start by acknowledging, and then resolving, these disparities; building trust; dismantling systemic suppression and discrimination; and prioritizing the inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in research studies and public health policies.

scholarly journals Comment on “The COVID-19 infodemic does not affect vaccine acceptance”

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riccardo Gallotti ◽  
Federico Pilati ◽  
Pier Luigi Sacco ◽  
Manlio De Domenico
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Policies ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Main Claim ◽  
Vaccine Acceptance ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Social Media Data ◽  
Public Health Policies ◽  
Media Data

In a recent paper by Valensise et al [1], the authors present an analysis of social media data – from Facebook and Twitter – and vaccine hesitancy data – from Facebook – to provide evidence that the overabundance of potentially unreliable information, known as infodemic, does not affect vaccine acceptance. If confirmed, this result could have a dramatic impact on public health policies across the world, suggesting that current actions taken in place to contain and prevent the spreading of disinformation and misinformation might be useless to significantly hinder vaccine hesitancy. We disagree with this conclusion on the basis of existing literature that the authors fail to consider,of methodological concerns that suggest that their approach might have crucial flaws, and of an alternative empirical analysis unraveling a broader and richer picture to interpret.Simplistic analyses are not enough to assess the complex interplay between two complex social and behavioral phenomena such as vaccine hesitancy and infodemic: more sophisticated analyses are needed to account for the different intervening socio-cultural, behavioral, environmental and epidemiological factors. Under these conditions, we conclude that the authors’ main claim is conceptually and empirically unsupported. We are sincerely concerned that, if measures disregarding the circulating disinformation around the COVID19 vaccines were endorsed by policy makers in the design of future public health policies, it might lead to serious negative consequences by dangerously overlooking a major potential driver of dysfunctional behavioral responses to public health policies and goals.

scholarly journals Understanding Vaccine Hesitancy as Extended Attitudes

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 43-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simona Vulpe
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Economic Capital ◽  
Health Policies ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Structural Constraints ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Public Health Policies ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Complete Rejection

AbstractVaccine hesitancy is not a singular view but encompasses a set of positions located between complete acceptance of vaccination and complete rejection of vaccination. In this paper, I argue that vaccine-hesitant attitudes emerge at the intersection of individual and structural processes, and thus can be better conceptualized as “extended attitudes”. Drawing on the theoretical understanding of risk and science scepticism in post-modern societies, I consider hesitant attitudes towards vaccination as addressing risks that are induced in our everyday lives by science developments. I conducted K-Means Cluster Analysis on Eurobarometer data from 2019 regarding Europeans’ attitudes towards vaccination. Four clusters of vaccine-hesitant attitudes were identified. “Price hesitation” and “Effort hesitation” result from restricted access to vaccination because of structural constraints, such as low economic capital and health care system’ deficits. “Unexercised pro-vaccination” is an attitude manifested by people who grant authority to science to manage health-related risks, even though they did not vaccinate in the last five years. “Consistent anti-vaccination” pertains to highly reflexive individuals who dismiss experts’ authority because of scientifically derived risks. My analysis enhances the theoretical understanding and the empirical assessment of vaccine-hesitant attitudes in the European Union and can inform public health policies in this area.

scholarly journals Using Unstated Cases to Correct for COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak and Its Impact on Easing the Intervention for Qatar

Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 463
Author(s):  
Narjiss Sallahi ◽  
Heesoo Park ◽  
Fedwa El Mellouhi ◽  
Mustapha Rachdi ◽  
Idir Ouassou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Epidemiological Models ◽  
Sir Epidemic Model ◽  
Gulf Region ◽  
Epidemiological Modeling ◽  
Public Health Policies ◽  
Sir Epidemic ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Case Data

Epidemiological Modeling supports the evaluation of various disease management activities. The value of epidemiological models lies in their ability to study various scenarios and to provide governments with a priori knowledge of the consequence of disease incursions and the impact of preventive strategies. A prevalent method of modeling the spread of pandemics is to categorize individuals in the population as belonging to one of several distinct compartments, which represents their health status with regard to the pandemic. In this work, a modified SIR epidemic model is proposed and analyzed with respect to the identification of its parameters and initial values based on stated or recorded case data from public health sources to estimate the unreported cases and the effectiveness of public health policies such as social distancing in slowing the spread of the epidemic. The analysis aims to highlight the importance of unreported cases for correcting the underestimated basic reproduction number. In many epidemic outbreaks, the number of reported infections is likely much lower than the actual number of infections which can be calculated from the model’s parameters derived from reported case data. The analysis is applied to the COVID-19 pandemic for several countries in the Gulf region and Europe.

scholarly journals Willingness to Receive the COVID-19 and Seasonal Influenza Vaccines among the Saudi Population and Vaccine Uptake During the Initial Stage of the National Vaccination Campaign: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Vaccines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 765
Author(s):  
Amel Ahmed Fayed ◽  
Abeer Salem Al Shahrani ◽  
Leenah Tawfiq Almanea ◽  
Nardeen Ibrahim Alsweed ◽  
Layla Mohammed Almarzoug ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Seasonal Influenza ◽  
Vaccination Campaign ◽  
Vaccine Uptake ◽  
Influenza Vaccines ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
To Receive

This study aimed to assess the willingness to receive the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and seasonal influenza vaccines and vaccine uptake during the early stage of the national vaccination campaign in Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among adult Saudis between 20 January and 20 March 2021. The questionnaire addressed vaccine hesitancy, perceived risk, willingness, and vaccine uptake. Approximately 39% of the participants expressed vaccine hesitancy, and 29.8% and 24% felt highly vulnerable to contracting COVID-19 and seasonal influenza, respectively. The majority (59.5%) were willing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, although only 31.7% were willing to receive the flu vaccine. Adjusted analysis showed that vaccine hesitancy (OR 0.34, 95% CI 0.27–0.43) and the perception of being at high risk (OR 2.78, 95% CI 1.68–4.60) independently affected the intention to be vaccinated. Vaccine hesitancy was similar among those who were willing to be vaccinated (29.8%) and those who had already been vaccinated (33.1%). The perceived risk was significantly higher among those who had been vaccinated (48.1%) than among those who were willing to be vaccinated but had not yet been vaccinated (29.1%). In conclusion, the acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine in Saudi Arabia is high. Saudis who received the vaccine had a similar level of vaccine hesitancy and a higher level of perceived risk.

scholarly journals Overuse of Health Care in the Emergency Services in Chile

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 3082
Author(s):  
Ximena Alvial ◽  
Alejandra Rojas ◽  
Raúl Carrasco ◽  
Claudia Durán ◽  
Christian Fernández-Campusano
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Emergency Services ◽  
Clinical Care ◽  
Tertiary Care ◽  
Public Health Policies ◽  
The Public ◽  
Healthcare Network ◽  
Use Of Emergency Services ◽  
Low Coverage ◽  
Different Levels

The Public Health Service in Chile consists of different levels of complexity and coverage depending on the severity and degree of specialization of the pathology to be treated. From primary to tertiary care, tertiary care is highly complex and has low coverage. This work focuses on an analysis of the public health system with emphasis on the healthcare network and tertiary care, whose objectives are designed to respond to the needs of each patient. A review of the literature and a field study of the problem of studying the perception of internal and external users is presented. This study intends to be a contribution in the detection of opportunities for the relevant actors and the processes involved through the performance of Triage. The main causes and limitations of the excessive use of emergency services in Chile are analyzed and concrete proposals are generated aiming to benefit clinical care in emergency services. Finally, improvements related to management are proposed and the main aspects are determined to improve decision-making in hospitals, which could be a contribution to public health policies.

scholarly journals COVID-19 Pandemic Optimism and Vaccine Willingness among an Online Sample of US Gay, Bisexual, and Other Men Who Have Sex with Men

Vaccines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 745
Author(s):  
Rob Stephenson ◽  
Stephen P. Sullivan ◽  
Renee A. Pitter ◽  
Alexis S. Hunter ◽  
Tanaka MD Chavanduka
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Binary Outcomes ◽  
Sex Partners ◽  
Black African ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Public Health Messages ◽  
Sex With Men ◽  
Living With Hiv

This paper presents data from an online sample of U.S gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM), to explore the factors associated with three dimensions of vaccine beliefs: perception of the likelihood of a COVID-19 vaccine becoming available, perception of when a COVID-19 vaccine would become available, and the likelihood of taking a COVID-19 vaccine. Data are taken from the Love and Sex in the Time of COVID-19 study, collected from November 2020 to January 2021. A sample of 290 GBMSM is analyzed, modeling three binary outcomes: belief that there will be a COVID-19 vaccine, belief that the COVID-19 vaccine will be available in 6 months, and being very likely to take the COVID-19 vaccine. In contrast to other studies, Black/African Americans and GBMSM living with HIV had higher levels of pandemic optimism and were more likely to be willing to accept a vaccine. Men who perceived a higher prevalence of COVID-19 among their friends and sex partners, and those who had reduced their sex partners, were more likely to be willing to take a COVID-19 vaccine. There remained a small percentage of participants (14%) who did not think the pandemic would end, that there would not be a vaccine and were unlikely to take a vaccine. To reach the levels of vaccination necessary to control the pandemic, it is imperative to understand the characteristics of those experiencing vaccine hesitancy and then tailor public health messages to their unique set of barriers and motivations.

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