Anti-vax sentiment in Scotland affecting child vaccine uptake, Public Health Scotland survey suggests

Anti-vax sentiment in Scotland may be playing a role in the decreasing vaccine uptake rates among children, a study has suggested.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) said “numerous” conspiracy theories have been brought up by parents and carers who choose not have have their children vaccinated.

The agency said in its Understanding and Addressing Declines in Childhood Immunisations publication that anti-vax sentiment was mentioned by most immunisation coordinators as something affecting vaccine uptake.

PHS said while it’s unclear how big an effect conspiracy theories are having on childhood immunisation, some workers on the ground reported it as having an impact.

Child vaccinations remain very high in Scotland at around 95% but there has been a small decrease over the past decade of pre-school children receiving such treatment.

The vast majority of babies in Scotland receive all their recommended jags.

PHS said misinformation and disinformation around the jag are often spread through “local opinion leaders on social media despite having been disproven”.

The report cites examples such as the MMR vaccine causing autism, aluminium contained in vaccines being dangerous to children’s health, Bill Gates’s involvement in the flu vaccine, certain vaccines being developed by particular state actors, and some “unspecified rumours” about the rotavirus vaccine.

The report found hesitancy around jabs may also be impacting uptake, which it said was associated with anti-vax sentiment because such attitudes and uncertainties “in part result from the spread of misinformation”.

But PHS added: “Hesitancy also arises due to safety concerns, worries about how children might react to the injection and to the environment in which the vaccination is being delivered.”

Health workers also reported further anti-vax feelings following Covid-19 “due to increased spread of misinformation” during the pandemic.

PHS made 15 recommendations to increase vaccine uptake including addressing misinformation, assessing the information parents would like to know about vaccines, introducing text and email reminders for vaccines, examining nursery-based delivery of vaccines and a new standardised process of updating patients’ vaccine history.