Opportunities and Barriers to Immunization Hesitance

A special issue of Vaccines (ISSN 2076-393X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2023) | Viewed by 166

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Emergency Medicine, Augusta University, 1120 15th St, Augusta, GA 30912, USA
Interests: vaccination; pain; deep sedation

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Guest Editor
Allergy-Immunology-Immunizations, Department of Medicine, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, and Immunization Healthcare Division, Defense Health Agency, Bethesda, MD, USA
Interests: vaccines; immune response

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Growing resistance to vaccination requires a new approach to public health in the context of worldwide pandemics. The mismatch between stated beliefs and behaviors reveals the shortcomings of survey research in the context of a socially undesirable trait: few are willing to acknowledge needle fear, and medical investigators often lack personal empathy with the problem needed for appropriate design. Freeman et al. estimated that 15% of those in the UK refusing vaccines did so due to needle fear. Basic issues of pain, vasovagal response, and fear of side effects once thought relevant only in pediatrics have become relevant to regaining trust and willingness for population-based vaccination.

An individual optimization of vaccine delivery may reduce barriers. Immune response to vaccination varies with an individual’s characteristics, including age, sex, and environmental setting, leading to variations in the safety and effectiveness profiles of certain vaccinations. As the concept of precision medicine has been raised in recent years, many researchers have suggested that vaccines could be administered more precisely in terms of particular target populations, vaccine formulations, regimens, and dosage levels.

Personalized vaccines help to avoid unnecessary doses or types of vaccines. The principles of personalized vaccines have also been applied in various trials against the recent pandemic of COVID-19. In a study carried out by Hunziker in 2021 in the USA, it was shown that older adults need high doses, whereas in younger adults, lower doses generate sufficient immunity; this reduces the number of vaccines needed and helps toward early vaccine availability to a large population. A personalized vaccine has the potential to create the next golden age in the field of immunization and vaccinology.

Both understanding the basic interplay of pain, fear, and residual perspectives on vaccine acceptance and optimizing the appropriateness of vaccines individually can rebuild trust in the most basic pillar of public health.

Dr. Amy L. Baxter
Dr. Renata J. M. Engler
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • personalized vaccines
  • immunization
  • vaccinology
  • immunse response

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