Confidence in childhood vaccines declines in Australia, worldwide

Australians have less confidence in childhood vaccinations than before the pandemic, sparking concerns anti-COVID-19 vaccine sentiment could spill over into distrust for other life-saving immunisations.

New data from the Vaccine Confidence Project released by UNICEF on Thursday shows Australians’ confidence in childhood vaccines has dropped 7.5 per cent from 93.8 per cent before the pandemic to 86.3 per cent in 2021-22.

Alice Hall, head of international programs for UNICEF Australia, said that although overall support for vaccines remains strong in Australia, the spread of distrust at home and abroad was worrying.

Confidence in childhood vaccines has declined globally since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“Australia is maintaining its [high childhood vaccination] rate at the moment, but it’s important that if there are trends away from prioritisation of vaccines that we’re able to understand what’s driving that, so we can step in and respond early,” she said.

The Vaccine Confidence Project has been measuring global perception of the importance, safety, and effectiveness of vaccines, as well as their compatibility with religious or personal beliefs since 2010.

UNICEF compiled survey results from more than 100,000 people worldwide to compare attitudes expressed from 2015-2019 with those expressed in 2021 and 2022 – after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Julie Leask from the University of Sydney School of Public Health said it was too soon to tell whether the results – the first global data to suggest a drop in confidence – would translate to a true decline in vaccination rates, but that experts have been concerned that anti-vaccine sentiment enlivened during the pandemic might have a “spillover effect” on support for childhood and other adult vaccines.

“In Australia, we have certainly seen more vaccine hesitancy around by virtue of the fact that many adults have had to think about vaccination … some have felt forced to get vaccinated and felt resentful of that,” Leask said.

In 2022, 93.75 per cent of Australian children were fully immunised by 12 months, and 94.3 per cent of five-year-olds were fully immunised – a slight decrease from pre-pandemic highs, the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care data shows.

Leask said the slight downturn was partly due to parents having difficulty accessing primary care and vaccination services – rather than anti-vaccination sentiment – and said improving access to vaccines was just as important as addressing any decline in confidence.

“For some people, they have to pay to see a GP because even for immunisation bulk billing isn’t possible, or it’s just harder to get an appointment, particularly in regional and rural areas,” she said.

“We need to be watching this space and thinking already about possible strategies to raise confidence in childhood vaccination.”

Globally, 67 million children have missed out on one or more vaccinations over three years, which UNICEF said was the largest sustained backslide in childhood immunisation in 30 years.

Christopher Maher, UNICEF Australia’s senior vaccine adviser, said countries that had seen major declines in vaccine confidence after the pandemic were also places where primary healthcare services were most dramatically disrupted by COVID-19.

“[These are] the people who are most likely to miss out on services anyway,” he said. “Once you don’t have these services being regularly offered, the stimulus and the motivation for people to make use of it declines as well.”

Papua New Guinea saw one of the most dramatic falls in childhood vaccine confidence, dropping from 90 per cent pre-pandemic to just 46 per cent by 2022. Vaccine confidence also fell by 11 per cent in Indonesia.

Maher said that declining confidence in regional neighbours made it even more important for Australians to maintain the country’s high vaccination rate.

“That protects us, it protects our neighbours, and if we’re less likely to be infecting them with nasty things, that’s a very good thing,” he said.

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