Abstract
COVID-19 vaccines are by no means a silver bullet. With more COVID-19 vaccines expecting approval in the coming months, it is necessary to note that vaccine availability does not equate to vaccine accessibility, nor vaccine efficacy. Some research suggests that approximately 9 out of 10 individuals living in lower-income countries will not have access to COVID-19 vaccines until 2023 or later. For higher-income countries, such as the United States, the prevalence of vaccine hesitancy may further compound the situation. These insights combined, in turn, emphasize the fact that even though COVID-19 vaccines are becoming more available, safety measures (e.g., face masks, personal hygiene, and social distancing) are still of pivotal importance in protecting personal and public health against COVID-19. Furthermore, this paper argues for the continued imperative for health experts and government officials to communicate and emphasize the importance of COVID-19 safety measures with the public, to make sure people are protected against COVID-19 till the pandemic ceases to pose a threat to personal or public health.
RAS ID
35689
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
2021
School
School of Business and Law
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Publisher
Elsevier
Comments
Su, Z., Wen, J., McDonnell, D., Goh, E., Li, X., Šegalo, S., ... Xiang, Y. T. (2021). Vaccines are not yet a silver bullet: The imperative of continued communication about the importance of COVID-19 safety measures. Brain, Behavior, & Immunity - Health, 12, article 100204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbih.2021.100204