Vaccine
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Vaccination may be critical to curtailing the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, but herd immunity can only be realized with high vaccination coverage. There is a need to identify empirically supported strategies to increase uptake, especially among young adults as this subpopulation has shown relatively poor adherence to physical distancing guidelines. Social norms - estimates of peers' behavior and attitudes - are robust predictors of health behaviors and norms-based intervention strategies may increase COVID vaccine uptake, once available. This study examined the extent that vaccination intentions and attitudes were associated with estimated social norms as an initial proof-of-concept test. ⋯ These significant associations highlight the potential value in developing and testing norms-based intervention strategies, such as personalized normative feedback, to improve uptake of forthcoming COVID vaccines among young adults.
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Decisions about influenza vaccination for fall-winter 2020 were made against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. During May 2020, the authors examined intended vaccination in the next 12 months in relationship to demographic variables, healthcare attitudes, and personal COVID-19 experiences for two samples of adults--those who did not receive influenza vaccine during the prior 12 months, and those who did. ⋯ The COVID-19 pandemic may have served as a cue to action for influenza vaccination intention among some prior non-vaccinators whereas intention among prior vaccinators is more related to positive attitudes toward vaccination.
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Vaccine hesitancy contributes to outbreaks of preventable disease worldwide. The Vaccine Hesitancy Scale (VHS), developed by the international WHO SAGE Working Group, has been validated previously for measuring hesitancy towards childhood vaccines; some psychometric properties were suboptimal. ⋯ Our modified VHS scales perform well psychometrically and allow for consistent measurement of the extent and reasons for hesitancy between vaccine categories. We suggest that future work use these scales to examine hesitancy towards other vaccines and to monitor hesitancy over time.
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Review Meta Analysis
Efficacy and effectiveness of high-dose influenza vaccine in older adults by circulating strain and antigenic match: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis.
Influenza vaccine efficacy/effectiveness can vary from season to season due in part to the dominant circulating strains and antigenic matching. This study reviews the relative vaccine efficacy/effectiveness (rVE) of high-dose inactivated trivalent influenza vaccine (HD-IIV3) compared to standard-dose influenza vaccines (SD-IIV) in adults aged ≥ 65 years against influenza-associated outcomes. Additional sub-analyses of HD-IIV3 rVE were performed by the predominantly circulating influenza strain and the antigenic match or mismatch of the vaccine against the predominant circulating strains. ⋯ Evidence over 10 consecutive influenza seasons and in more than 34 million individuals aged ≥ 65 years suggests that HD-IIV3 is consistently more effective than SD-IIV at reducing influenza cases as well as influenza-associated clinical complications irrespective of circulating strain and antigenic match. A video summary of the article can be accessed via the Supplementary data link at the end of this article.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Impact of maternal diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis vaccination on pertussis booster immune responses in toddlers: Follow-up of a randomized trial.
Transplacentally transferred antibodies induced by maternal pertussis vaccination interfere with infant immune responses to pertussis primary vaccination. We evaluated whether this interference remains in toddlers after booster vaccination. ⋯ ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02853929.