The report of the WHO SAGE Vaccine Hesitancy Working Group defined vaccine hesitancy as “a behaviour, influenced by a number of factors including issues of confidence (e.g. low level of trust in vaccine or provider), complacency (e.g. negative perceptions of the need for, or value of, vaccines], and convenience (e.g. lack of easy access)”.
It is often said that sex and gender differences are perceived as overlooked in research design and in clinical trials, even those on vaccines. In 2010, the World Health Organisation (WHO) published the document Sex, gender and influenza, which states that many reports of influenza vaccination rates as well as the safety, efficacy and effectiveness of vaccines around the world do not disaggregate data by sex.
Influenza pandemics are unpredictable but recurring events that can have severe consequences on human health and socio-economic life to global level. For this reason, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended all countries to prepare a pandemic influenza plan following its own guidelines.
High rates of vaccination coverage in childhood are main indicators for public health. However, reaching and maintaining such a target is not always an easy task for public health institutions, and the spread of vaccine refusal and hesitancy is making this even harder.
Enforcing mandatory vaccinations is one of the strategies that some countries adopted and others are considering in order to face this issue. Depending on local legislations, legal consequences for those who do not accept the uptake can be very different, ranging from pecuniary penalties to hurdles to attend public schools. In some cases, parents may even incur penal consequences, as it recently happened in France, were two parents refusing to vaccinate their children risked a jail sentence. Nevertheless, the efficacy of such an approach has been questioned.
