Vaccine hesitancy not driven by 'anti-vaccination memes' but a lack of information

Dr De Gascun said the current generation of vaccinations "are not sufficient in and of themselves" to control Covid-19.

Unvaccinated people often lack information about vaccines and feel disconnected from society, a seminar on Covid-19 heard today.

Over 92% of adults in Ireland are vaccinated here but health officials have called on the estimated remaining 370,000 adults to consider full vaccination.

Professor Pete Lunn, head of the ESRI's Behavioural Research Unit, said research shows concerns about the speed of vaccine development still linger. 

“The strongest variable we have in our entire data-set is ‘how closely were you following the news coverage about Covid-19?’,” he said.

“What that tells you is that vaccine hesitancy is less driven by anti-vaccination memes on the internet and much more driven by people who are cut off from the mainstream of society.” 

He urged health officials and the media to avoid an 'us vs them' narrative around hesitancy and to focus instead on promoting the positives of vaccination. “It is about getting to the hard-to-reach people,” Prof. Lunn said. 

“The hesitant people are less likely to see the benefits. They see the speed of development and it frightens them.” 

The St Luke’s Symposium hosted by the Royal College of Physicians Ireland (RCPI) also heard from Dr Cillian de Gascun, director National Virus Reference Laboratory (NVRL).

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Dr De Gascun said vaccines are only one part of controlling Covid. He said: “I don’t know whether, with our current vaccination strategy in isolation without other public health strategies being continued, we can get it down to what we would consider a sustainable, manageable endemic level.” 

Suppression is down to the public’s actions, he said.

“We are very keen to see the end of this pandemic,” he said. 

“It is important that we don’t see vaccinations (as the only answer). Certainly, the current generation of vaccinations are not sufficient in and of themselves to control this pandemic.” 

He said Covid is “still very much a concern”. 

“We have never suppressed this virus completely since last year,” he said, adding however the mortality rate has “significantly reduced” due to vaccinations.

Dr Susan Hopkins told the seminar Covid-19 remains at pandemic status globally. Dr Hopkins, interim chief Public Health England and clinical advisor, UK Health Security Agency, said: “As much as we’d like to go back to normal, that’s where we will be for the next six months.” 

Concluding the talk Professor Mary Horgan, RCPI president and infectious diseases consultant at Cork University Hospital, said she hopes Covid will eventually become “a small little component” of healthcare. She said: “We absolutely have to transition into that, and the sooner we can do that the better.”