In our fight against the Covid-19 Pandemic, vaccine hesitancy is a major roadblock. Here we take a look at some information on vaccinations and vaccine hesitancy in USA and New Jersey.

Reasons for Vaccine Hesitancy

Vaccine hesitancy has existed for a long time before Covid-19 was discovered.

In 2019, WHO named vaccine hesitancy the top 10 threats to overall health because it “threatens to reverse progress made in tackling vaccine-preventable diseases.”

According to WHO, there is a lack of trust when it comes to vaccines, healthcare systems, and policy makers.

Another reason for vaccine hesitancy, is the concern on the potential side effects of vaccines.Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Maryland partnered with Facebook and gathered 18 million answers and found that 70% of adults are concerned about the possible side effects of Covid-19 vaccines.

CDC has also identified other factors when it comes to safety for vaccines such as a “wait and see” approach, not putting any trust on the government, and showing concern on how rapid the Covid-19 vaccines were developed.

Vaccine hesitancy has also been displayed in the US with lower vaccination rates in communities of color. The Tuskegee syphilis study was a racist experiment that denied African Americans effective medication for syphilis, and is considered to be a reason why there exists vaccine hesitancy and lack of trust in the healthcare system among African Americans.

Access challenge is also a reason for vaccine hesitancy.Today, there is a ton of discrimination against people of color in the healthcare system which restricts their access.

Another reason for vaccine hesitancy is “a perception of low risks from disease (complacency, which paradoxically arises because effective vaccines lead to low disease risk in the first place)”

First we look at USA vaccination information including vaccine hesitancy

For United States, this dataset contains data only from February 2021 to October 2021

Graphical view of Vaccine Willingness and Unwillingness in USA from February 2021 to October 2021

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Vaccine Willingness and Unwillingness USA from February 2021 to October 2021 - Stacked Bar Graph

Analyzing Vaccinated Population Worldwide from December 2020 to February 2022

Some visuals on vaccinations and vaccine hesitancy in New Jersey

NJ Strongly Vaccine Hesitant

Percent NJ Pop Fully Vaccinated against COVID-19 (6/10/2021)

Next we take a look at deaths by vaccination status and age groups

The graphs below clearly show the greatest percentage deaths are among the unvaccinated people, especially those who 65 years and older.