A study conducted by the Instituto Questão de Ciência (IQC) and the Brazilian Society of Pediatrics (SBP) shows how much misinformation about vaccines — especially those aimed at preventing Covid-19 — influences the fear of families to immunize children in Brazil .
Preliminary data indicate that the fear of adverse events and the distrust that immunizers are safe have become the most relevant factors for the lack of vaccination of minors.
The survey was carried out with about a thousand pediatricians throughout Brazil, during the months of February and April. In all, 982 professionals answered questions that try to find out why Brazil has regressed in vaccination coverage and the hesitation of families has grown in recent years, especially after the coronavirus pandemic.
According to health professionals, social networks were identified by 31% as the main source influencing families not to want to vaccinate their children, followed by other media (20.7%) and the internet (13.6%).
The reasons most mentioned by families assisted by these professionals are “fear of adverse events”, with 19.8%, and “unreliable vaccine safety”, with 19.3%.
Other factors related to daily life or logistics, such as forgetfulness (18%) and lack of vaccine in the public service (17.6%) and vaccine price in private services (10.7%), have less influence on non-compliance with the scheme vaccination of patients under 18 years of age.
The research also indicates that the vaccine against Covid-19 is, by far, the one that arouses the greatest concern, with more than 81% of affirmative answers. Immunization against influenza (6.7%) and yellow fever (6.1%) come next, well below the index related to prevention against the coronavirus.
Respondents said they heard concerns from families such as “RNA vaccine poses a risk to the health of children” (18.1%), fear of thrombosis and myocarditis (16.6%) and “RNA vaccines are not safe in the long term” ( 13.1%), in addition to the claim that “children would not even have severe Covid” (12.8%).
For the president of the Instituto Questão de Ciência, Natalia Pasternak, the study shows that disinformation is not an “innocent lie” and that it is necessary to face it with strategies based on science and the best knowledge on the subject.
The president of the Brazilian Society of Pediatrics, Clóvis Francisco Constantino, says that the organization wants to propose “new strategies to combat misinformation and, consequently, vaccine hesitancy”.
Research objectives
- Discover the most common doubts of families during pediatric care routines
- Understanding these specialists’ views on vaccination
- Reinforce, with the population and pediatricians, the importance of vaccines to prevent or prevent the worsening of diseases
- Evaluate what difficulties specialists face in combating misinformation about vaccines in their offices
The full survey will be released later this month, according to the Instituto Questão de Ciência (IQC).
Source: CNN Brasil
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