Vaccine
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Maintaining health of healthcare workers with vaccination is a major component of pandemic preparedness and acceptance of vaccinations is essential to its success. This study aimed to examine impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on change of influenza vaccination acceptance and identify factors associated with acceptance of potential COVID-19 vaccination. ⋯ With a low level of COVID-19 acceptance intentions and high proportion of hesitation in both influenza and COVID-19 vaccination, evidence-based planning are needed to improve the uptake of both vaccinations in advance of their implementation. Future studies are needed to explore reasons of change of influenza vaccination acceptance, look for actual behaviour patterns of COVID-19 vaccination acceptance and examine effectiveness of promotion strategies.
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COVID-19 pandemic has affected routine immunization globally. Impact will likely be higher in low and middle-income countries with limited healthcare resources and fragile health systems. We quantified the impact, spatial heterogeneity, and determinants for childhood immunizations of 48 million population affected in the Sindh province of Pakistan. ⋯ One out of every two children in Sindh province has missed their routine vaccinations during the provincial COVID-19 lockdown. The pool of un-immunized children is expanding during lockdown, leaving them susceptible to vaccine-preventable diseases. There is a need for tailored interventions to promote immunization visits and safe service delivery. Higher maternal education, facility-based births, and early enrollment into the immunization program continue to show a positive association with immunization uptake, even during a challenging lockdown.
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Influenza vaccine hesitancy among healthcare workers poses challenges to the achievement of herd immunity and causes infection risks to vulnerable patients. This study aimed to quantify the extent of influenza vaccine hesitancy among nurses in Hong Kong, to delineate its pattern, and to explore its socio-demographic, professional and personal correlates. ⋯ With more than half of the nurses in Hong Kong having moderate or higher level of influenza vaccine hesitancy, interventions customised to the needs of nurses as reflected from the characteristics of clusters along the vaccine hesitancy continuum could form an important strategy for improving vaccination uptake.
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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic in March 2020. Several prophylactic vaccines against COVID-19 are currently in development, yet little is known about people's acceptability of a COVID-19 vaccine. ⋯ Many adults are willing to get a COVID-19 vaccine, though acceptability should be monitored as vaccine development continues. Our findings can help guide future efforts to increase COVID-19 vaccine acceptability (and uptake if a vaccine becomes available).
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New influenza vaccine formulations are designed to improve vaccine effectiveness and protect those most vulnerable to infection. High dose trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine (HD-IIV3), licensed for ages ≥65 years, produces greater antibody responses and efficacy in clinical trials, but post-licensure vaccine effectiveness (VE) compared to standard dose (SD-IIV3/4) vaccine remains an open question. ⋯ Among adults ≥65 years of age, recipients of standard and high dose influenza vaccines differed significantly in their characteristics. After adjusting for these differences, high dose vaccine offered more protection against A/H3N2 and borderline significant protection against all influenza A requiring outpatient care during the 2015-2018 influenza seasons.