Understanding and Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy to Improve Public Health Outcomes

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused over 765 million cases and almost 7 million deaths world widely (WHO) (World Health Organization, 2023). As the rapid development and distribution of vaccines helped and minimized the catastrophe, vaccine hesitancy emerged as a major barrier to controlling the pandemic (Tan et al. 2022). This issue was well recognized by the World Health Organization as one of the top ten threats to global health, vaccine hesitancy stems from concerns about safety, misinformation, conspiracy related theories, mistrust in local governments and international healthcare systems, and more important cultural beliefs (Scognamiglio et al. 2022). Understanding the main factors of hesitancy is therefore very important for improving vaccine acceptance, achieving overall herd immunity, and ensuring effective pandemic control in future.