Korea's Trust in Children's Vaccines Halved... Largest Decline Worldwide

UNICEF 'Global Child Vaccination Status' Survey
Trust Declines in Most Countries After COVID-19 Experience

A report has emerged showing that trust in infant vaccination has significantly declined worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, South Korea's vaccine trust dropped by as much as 44%, ranking it first in the world for the largest decline.

On the 19th (local time), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) released the "2023 Global Status of Children's Vaccination" report. According to this report, when comparing before and after COVID-19, the proportion of the population recognizing that "vaccines are important for children" decreased in 52 out of 55 surveyed countries, excluding only 3 countries.

South Korea's trust in vaccines fell from 92% before COVID-19 to 48%, a 44 percentage point drop, making it the country with the largest decline in trust worldwide. Especially among South Korean youth, vaccine trust dropped by 55 percentage points, the largest decline among all groups in all surveyed countries. Following South Korea, countries with the largest declines included some of Africa's poorest nations such as Papua New Guinea, Ghana, and Senegal. Japan ranked fifth in decline, with a drop of over 30 percentage points. Japan's vaccine trust stood at 54%, 6 percentage points higher than South Korea's.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Countries where infant vaccine trust actually increased during the COVID-19 pandemic were China, India, and Mexico. Among these, China showed the largest increase, rising by nearly 10 percentage points, while India and Mexico recorded increases of around 2 percentage points each.

Countries with high vaccine trust exceeding 90% included India (98%), Vietnam (97%), and China (95%). The United States (79%) and France (75%) saw about a 10 percentage point decline compared to before, but still maintained relatively high levels in the 70% range.

Regarding vaccine trust, in most countries, the youth under 35 showed a larger decline compared to the elderly over 65, and women tended to shift more towards vaccine distrust than men.

In response, UNICEF analyzed that "the increased access to misleading information on social networking services (SNS), combined with declining trust in authority in some regions, political polarization, and various other factors, suggest that threats to global health may increase."

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell also described the survey results as a "worrying warning sign," expressing concern that "as trust in vaccines declines, children may face a higher risk of dying from diseases such as measles and diphtheria."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.