Vaccine hesitancy one of the biggest threats to public health: Report

A recent report revealed that a wide array of factors including gender, education and media consumption can have an impact on public attitudes towards the coronavirus vaccinations across Central Asian countries.

According to the World Health Organisation, vaccine hesitancy is one of the biggest threats to global health, with experts identifying that one of the most common reasons for refusal include a lack of trust and inaccessibility.

In a report by the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Program (CAREC) Institute, it was revealed that the majority of respondents from the participating countries in this survey "expressed a positive opinion about the effectiveness of vaccinations", with the highest rate of positive responses coming from Mongolia (71.9%), and the lowest from Kazakhstan (29.2%).

The report added that anti-vaccination campaigns have taken place periodically all over the world during the pandemic, as activities on the Internet and in social media were especially widespread and have strongly affected public opinion.