Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Sep 7;91(3):e2020031.
doi: 10.23750/abm.v91i3.10549.

Vaccine hesitancy in COVID-19 times. An update from Italy before flu season starts

Anna Odone  1 , Daria Bucci  2 , Roberto Croci  3 , Matteo Riccò  4 , Paola Affanni  5 , Carlo Signorelli  6
Affiliations
Review

Vaccine hesitancy in COVID-19 times. An update from Italy before flu season starts

Anna Odone et al. Acta Biomed. .

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and response caused a worrying decline in vaccine uptake around the world. In Italy, the immunization coverage targets set in the 2017-19 National Immunization Prevention Plan (PNPV) have been met only partially. The current public health emergency is likely to have negatively impacted on immunization , with the risk of re-occurrence of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases (VPDs) outbreaks. As flu season approaches, both National Health Institutions and the scientific community in Italy have taken action. Well in advance as compared to previous years, the Ministry of Health released the Circular to launch the 2020-2021 influenza immunization campaign which this year is longer (starting on October 2020) and extends flu vaccine recommendations to more "at risk" subgroups, offered the vaccine free of charge. In addition, some Italian Regions have recently tried to make flu vaccination compulsory for all Healthcare Workers (HCWs). Since 2017, when the law on childhood vaccination in Italy was passed, compulsory vaccination has proved to be a successful strategy towards coverage increase.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Each author declares that he or she has no commercial associations (e.g. consultancies, stock ownership, equity interest, patent/licensing arrangement etc.) that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article

References

    1. Dinleyici E. C, Borrow R, Safadi M. A. P, van Damme P, Munoz F. M. Vaccines and routine immunization strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hum. Vaccin. Immunother. 2020:1–8. doi:10.1080/21645515.2020.1804776. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Clark A, Jit M, Warren-Gash C, Guthrie B, Wang H. H. X, et al. Global, regional, and national estimates of the population at increased risk of severe COVID-19 due to underlying health conditions in 2020: a modelling study. Lancet Glob. Heal. 2020;8:e1003–e1017. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Abbas K, Procter S. R, van Zandvoort K, Clark A, Funk S, et al. Routine childhood immunisation during the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa: a benefit-risk analysis of health benefits versus excess risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Lancet Glob. Heal. 2020 doi:10.1016/S2214-109X(20)30308-9. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Roberton T, Carter E. D, Chou V. B, Stegmuller A. R, Jackson B. D, et al. Early estimates of the indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on maternal and child mortality in low-income and middle-income countries: a modelling study. Lancet Glob. Heal. 2020;8:e901–e908. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Odone A, Signorelli C. When vaccine hesitancy makes headlines. Vaccine. 2017;35:1209–1210. - PubMed

Substances