Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics
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Hum Vaccin Immunother · Nov 2020
YouTube coverage of COVID-19 vaccine development: implications for awareness and uptake.
This study examined 100 widely viewed YouTube videos on COVID-19 vaccination. Information such as length, format, upload source, content, and cumulative views was coded. As of April 6, 2020, the videos were viewed >33 million times. ⋯ Even once the biological and technical aspects of vaccine development and manufacturing are accomplished, the benefits conferred on population health will also depend on public willingness to be vaccinated. Ongoing tracking of YouTube is needed to identify what is communicated about vaccines for COVID-19. To the extent that public health officials learn how to create videos about the safety and effectiveness of a COVID-19 vaccine, which attract viewers, this could help increase awareness and interest about vaccination and help individuals make an informed decision about vaccine uptake.
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Hum Vaccin Immunother · Nov 2020
ReviewSocial media and vaccine hesitancy: new updates for the era of COVID-19 and globalized infectious diseases.
Despite major advances in vaccination over the past century, resurgence of vaccine-preventable illnesses has led the World Health Organization to identify vaccine hesitancy as a major threat to global health. Vaccine hesitancy may be fueled by health information obtained from a variety of sources, including new media such as the Internet and social media platforms. As access to technology has improved, social media has attained global penetrance. ⋯ Users may self-select content streams, contributing to ideological isolation. As such, there are considerable public health concerns raised by anti-vaccination messaging on such platforms and the consequent potential for downstream vaccine hesitancy, including the compromise of public confidence in future vaccine development for novel pathogens, such as SARS-CoV-2 for the prevention of COVID-19. In this review, we discuss the current position of social media platforms in propagating vaccine hesitancy and explore next steps in how social media may be used to improve health literacy and foster public trust in vaccination.
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The pandemic outbreak of COVID-19, caused by coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, created an unprecedented challenge to global public health system and biomedical community. Vaccination is an effective way to prevent viral infection, stop its transmission, and develop herd immunity. Rapid progress and advances have been made to date in the development of COVID-19 vaccines. ⋯ Most of those vaccine candidates are developed based on the experience with other coronaviruses with an aim to induce neutralizing antibodies against the viral spike protein or its different receptor binding domains. Here, we discuss the promise, potential scientific challenges, and future directions for the development of a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine. We also emphasize the importance of a better understanding of the infection pathogenesis and host defense mechanisms against SARS-CoV-2 infection.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has posed multiple substantial challenges, affecting not only public health but also economic systems, socio-cultural patterns, and political institutions. Studies have focused on the relationships between complex emergencies and natural disasters with outbreaks of infectious diseases. However, there is a dearth of relevant literature on the impact of a global pandemic on vaccination programs - an important topic because delays or stops in such programs are likely to result in outbreaks and epidemics of other infectious diseases. ⋯ Negative impacts include the increased risk of VPD outbreaks in low-resource countries where vaccination programs must be temporarily halted to prevent the spread of infection. Positive effects include the strong possibility that the universally-recognized need for a coronavirus vaccine may increase people's appreciation for vaccines in general, resulting in improved vaccination uptake once the pandemic passes. Concerned stakeholders, such as governments and the World Health Organization (WHO), should seize this moment to effectively build on these positive impacts by planning renewed and revitalized post-COVID vaccination programs.
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Hum Vaccin Immunother · Nov 2020
Meningococcal infections among refugees and immigrants: silent threats of past, present and future.
Globally, there is an increasing number of international migrants. The majority are forced displaced refugees and children unaccompanied by a caregiver, and have limited access to essential public health interventions. Routine vaccination might be interrupted or be incomplete due to conflict areas with limited public health services or a long-unplanned journey. ⋯ There is no official recommendation for meningococcal vaccination of refugees. Further strategies for prevention and treatment of human immunodeficiency virus, tuberculosis and antibiotic resistance among refugees are directly related to potential prevention methods for IMD. Meningococcal vaccines have been administered only to risk groups in most host countries Thus, further strategies for the definition of new/emerging risk factors for IMD would be helpful to guide vaccine implementation for refugees and immigrants.