On January 20, 2019 the World Health Organisation (WHO) named vaccine hesitancy as one of the world’s top 10 global health threats, alongside air pollution and climate change, noncommunicable diseases, global influenza pandemic, fragile and vulnerable settings, antimicrobial resistance, Ebola and other high-threat pathogens, weak primary health care, Dengue and HIV. Pointing out that “vaccine hesitancy is directly related to most of them”, and their concern not getting vaccinated is it is putting “a generation at risk” [1].
The WHO defines Vaccine hesitancy as “the reluctance or refusal to vaccinate despite the availability of vaccines – threatens to reverse progress made in tackling vaccine-preventable diseases.”
Without citations they go on to state “Vaccination is one of the most cost-effective ways of avoiding disease – it currently prevents 2-3 million deaths a year, and a further 1.5 million could be avoided if global coverage of vaccinations improved.” By “avoid” do they mean prevent, as in you won’t develop symptoms?
The WHO SAGE Vaccine Hesitancy Working Group identified complacency, inconvenience in accessing vaccines, and lack of confidence are key reasons underlying hesitancy, which in December 2019, while cameras were rolling, the WHO representatives pointed out doctor’s are not trained in vaccinations and can’t get the information they need, yet they acknowledge “physicians’ advice has been shown to be the most important predictor of vaccine acceptance.”
But lawsuits reveal vaccines are not properly safety tested before apporval, and have complete liabilty shield, among many other issues.