Worldwide sentiment on vaccinations
There is global mistrust growing in vaccines and as a result there is more refusal to get vaccinated and therefore there are concerns of outbreaks. Vaccines are a controversial topic around the world and as a result there are varying public policies and practices surrounding vaccines. If you are curious about the specific policies and practices of a country, you can access over 180 countries policies through the BCG World Atlas database. Accessible by the link below:
The World Health Organization (WHO), deals with matters of international public health. It is an agency of the United Nations whose purpose is to set standards for public health and monitor and assist in their implementation. Included in their duties are recommendations on vaccinations. For information on this visit the following page:
As well, WHO publishes position papers that can be accessed with the link below:
The world policies and recommendations in regards to vaccines and immunizations is set and enforced by WHO. In 1999 an organization was established to advise the WHO on issues related to immunizations called Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE). For more information about SAGE and current news visit the following page:
SAGE and WHO are involved in setting global policies and strategies related to vaccinations. In many places around the world, the worry about vaccines is not whether to take them or not because of risk of autism. Instead, many people do not take them because they do not have access to properly manufactured vaccines or access to vaccines in general. This is a major issue that the WHO and SAGE are working on. They have developed global vaccine action plans to increase accessibility to vaccines around the world. For more information about global vaccine action plan reports visit the following page:
Sources:
Zwerling, A., Behr, M. A., Verma, A., Brewer, T.F., Menzies, D. and Pai, M. (2011). The BCG World Atlas: A Database of Global BCG Vaccination Policies and Practices. PLOS Medicine. 8(3). e1001012. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001012
Larson, H. J., de Figueiredo, A., Xiahong, Z., Schulz, W. S., Verger, P., Johnston, I. G., Cook, A. R., Jones, N. S. (2016). The State of Vaccine Confidence 2016: Global Insights Through a 67-Country Survey. EBioMedicine, 12, 295–301. doi:10.1016/j.ebiom.2016.08.042
Michelle Roberts, M. (2019). Vaccines: Low trust in vaccination ‘a global crisis’. BBC News. Retrieved from: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-48512923
World Health Organization (WHO). (2019). GlobalVaccine Action Plan: World Health Organization. Retrieved from: https://www.who.int/immunization/global_vaccine_action_plan/en/
Duclos, P. and Okwo-Bele, J. M.(2007). Global Immunization Policies and Recommendations: World Health Organization. Retrieved from: https://www.who.int/immunization/stakeholders/article_policies_recommendations.pdf
World Health Organization (WHO). (2019). Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization: World Health Organization. Retrieved from: https://www.who.int/immunization/policy/sage/en/
Levine, O.S., Hajjeh, R., Wecker, J., Cherian, T., O’Brien, K. L., Knoll, M. D., Privor-Dumm, L., Kvist, H., Nanni, A., Bear, A. P. and Santosham, M. (2010). A policy framework for accelerating adoption of new vaccines. Human Vaccines, 6(12). 1021-1024, doi: 10.4161/hv.6.12.13076