Vaccine Confidence Fades in Most Countries

New data collected by The Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and published today by UNICEF indicates a decrease in vaccine confidence in most countries.

As of April 20, 2023, people under 35 and women were more likely to report less confidence about vaccines for children after the start of the pandemic.

However, China, India, and Mexico were the only countries studied where the data suggests the perception of the importance of vaccines held firm or even improved.

In a related press release, Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director, commented, "This data is a worrying warning signal. We cannot allow confidence in routine immunizations to become another victim of the pandemic."

"Otherwise, the next wave of deaths could be of more children with measles, diphtheria, or other preventable diseases."

Launched in 2015, the Vaccine Confidence Index™ (VCI) is a digital tool for gaining data-led insights into vaccine confidence at global, regional, and national levels.

In addition to measuring overall trust in vaccines, the VCI guides where to prioritize confidence building.

Data presented in this report comes from a large-scale retrospective study of changes in vaccine confidence between 2015 and November 2019 and since 2021.