Philip Jong

The World Health Organization identified vaccine hesitancy as among the top threats to global health in 2019. Simply speaking, vaccine hesitancy refers to the reluctance or refusal to be vaccinated against vaccine-preventable diseases despite availability of effective and safe vaccines. Even before the introduction of the first vaccine in 1796, opposition based on religious grounds already existed for centuries earlier against the practice of variolation used to induce immunity against smallpox at a time when the disease was endemic and highly lethal. Nowadays, resistance against vaccination is mostly rooted in systemic misinformation and public mistrust over ethical, political, or medical pseudo-arguments. Social media on the internet further gives rise to a platform by which anti-vaxxers can spread vaccine falsehood that ignores current scientific evidence. In recent years, inadequate vaccination has led to a resurgence in measles, pertussis, and other contagious diseases around the world. The current COVID-19 pandemic has reignited the dangers of vaccine hesitancy, as countries race toward mass vaccination to attain both host and herd immunity in order to protect their populations. While working as a frontline health professional, I had been personally confronted by anti-vaccination protestors who sought to spread false anti-science rhetoric about vaccines to the public. Until more is done to combat vaccine hesitancy, we will remain at risk of undoing the progress in global health we have achieved with vaccination and putting ourselves at risk for another pandemic in the future.