Vaccine hesitancy prevents effectiveness of vaccines – the aff doesn’t solve

[Denise, “Vaccine Innovation Continued in 2023 with Several Important Approvals” Managed Healthcare Executive, January 19, 2024, https://www.managedhealthcareexecutive.com/view/important-vaccines-approved-in-2023-but-vaccine-hesitancy-persists, Accessed 7.21.24 GDI-HB]

Even though advances have been made in the area of vaccines, the question remains whether people in the United States and elsewhere will accept and get these vaccines. Vaccine hesitancy, which ranges from misgiving to outright resistance, took hold during the COVID-19 pandemic because of misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines, and it has shown staying power. The proportion of U.S. adults who have received COVID-19 vaccines, flu and RSV remains low, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Just 21.4% of adults over the age of 18 have received the COVD-19 vaccine, while 41.5% have gotten a flu vaccine.

Vaccine hesitancy is not just about COVID-19 vaccines. Cases of measles have surged in the Washington, D.C., area, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Washington state, partly because children have not been vaccinated.

In a recent study, researchers from University of Colorado School of Medicine found while the COVID-19 pandemic did not overall impact parent vaccine hesitancy, some misinformation about COVID-19 may be impacting parental trust in childhood vaccines.

In a survey by researchers from University of Michigan School of Public Health found that some parents (12%) believe that childhood vaccines are less important compared with before the pandemic and that some (13%) believe that childhood vaccines are less effective now. They also found that negative beliefs about childhood vaccines were clustered in places with low COVID-19 vaccination rates.

In a another study, researchers from University of Colorado School of Medicine found that misinformation about COVID-19 may be impacting parental trust in childhood vaccines.