With COVID-19 vaccine trial results looking positive, governments and pharmaceutical firms face their next daunting challenge: convincing the world to get inoculated. The World Health Organization estimates that about 70% of people must be inoculated to break transmission of the virus.
Experts are also cautioning any conversation over a vaccine’s risks and rewards must be frank. A return to normal life will still take time, with no one shot likely to be a silver bullet. And many questions are likely to remain, including how long a vaccine will provide protection.
“We need a serious, well-funded and community-based public engagement strategy,” said Melinda Mills, an Oxford University expert in demographic science who led a recent report on the issue by the British Academy and the Royal Society. The report found that, in part due to misinformation and behavioural factors, around 36% of people in Britain say they are either uncertain or very unlikely to agree to be vaccinated against COVID-19.