The COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact daily life, including health system operations, despite the availability of vaccines that are effective in greatly reducing the risks of death and severe disease. Misperceptions of COVID-19 vaccine safety, efficacy, risks, and mistrust in institutions responsible for vaccination campaigns have been reported as factors contributing to vaccine hesitancy. This study investigated COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy globally in June 2021. Nationally representative samples of 1,000 individuals from 23 countries were surveyed. Data were analyzed descriptively, and weighted multivariable logistic regressions were used to explore associations with vaccine hesitancy. Here, we show that more than three-fourths (75.2%) of the 23,000 respondents report vaccine acceptance, up from 71.5% one year earlier. Across all countries, vaccine hesitancy is associated with a lack of trust in COVID-19 vaccine safety and science, and skepticism about its efficacy. Vaccine hesitant respondents are also highly resistant to required proof of vaccination; 31.7%, 20%, 15%, and 14.8% approve requiring it for access to international travel, indoor activities, employment, and public schools, respectively. For ongoing COVID-19 vaccination campaigns to succeed in improving coverage going forward, substantial challenges remain to be overcome. These include increasing vaccination among those reporting lower vaccine confidence in addition to expanding vaccine access in low- and middle-income countries. 

/pdf/revisiting-covid-19-vaccine-hesitancy-around-the-world-using-3a2ho8dv.pdf

Revisiting COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy around the world using data from 23 countries in 2021

/pdf/revisiting-covid-19-vaccine-hesitancy-around-the-world-using-23pqwnv2.pdf

Ensuring access to healthcare is critical to prevent illnesses and deaths from COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 cases in health systems that have deteriorated during the pandemic. This study aims to map the existing literature on healthcare access after the appearance of COVID-19 using an ontological framework. This will help us to formalize, standardize, visualize and assess the barriers to and drivers of access to healthcare, and how to continue working towards a more accessible health system. A total of 131 articles are included and considered for mapping in the framework. The results were also compared to the World Health Organization guidelines on maintaining essential health services to determine the overlapping and nonoverlapping areas. We showed the benefits of using ontology to promote a systematic approach to address healthcare problems of access during COVID-19 or other pandemics and set public policies. This systematic approach will provide feedback to study the existing guidelines to make them more effective, learn about the existing gaps in research, and the relationship between the two of them. These results set the foundation for the discussion of future public health policies and research in relevant areas where we might pay attention.

Access to Healthcare during COVID-19.

/pdf/the-global-prevalence-of-and-factors-associated-with-3j740ldt.pdf

The global prevalence of and factors associated with Helicobacter pylori infection in children: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Over the past few months, COVID-19 has ravaged health systems and economies in countries across the world. While many would argue that a pandemic of respiratory disease was predictable, the systematic failures of the response came as a surprise. From the shortage of hospital beds and medical equipment to the gross insufficiencies in national surveillance systems, supply chains and laboratory capacity, COVID-19 has laid bare the health care limitations that ‘global north’ and ‘global south’ share. A stark set of differences, however, run across the parallels in our collective predicament: indeed, what has become ever-more apparent is the radically uneven distribution of the health, social and economic risks associated with the pandemic—and the public health measures implemented in response—both within and between societies. As concerns grow over a prolonged period of COVID-19 waves, further insights are needed into who bears the largest share of COVID-19 burden and why. The pursuit of health equity is widely held to be global health’s raison d’etre; and yet, the deep inequities laid bare by the current pandemic underscore that the field must do more and we must do better. This article identifies five key domains for equity research and action going forward. These ‘equity frontiers’ are not meant to be exhaustive. Rather our emphasis here is on drawing lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic as a prompt for a revived—if not rethought—equity agenda for an evolving global health field.

/pdf/the-covid-19-pandemic-underscores-the-need-for-an-equity-eepxi91dsv.pdf

The COVID-19 pandemic underscores the need for an equity-focused global health agenda

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a major public health threat globally and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are not an exception. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is far-reaching on many areas including but not limited to global health security, economic and healthcare delivery with a potential impact on access to healthcare in LMICs. We evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on access to healthcare in LMICs, as well as plausible strategies that can be put in place to ensure that the delivery of healthcare is not halted. In order to mitigate the devastating effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the already weak health systems in LMICs, it is much necessary to reinforce and scale up interventions and proactive measures that will ensure that access to healthcare is not disrupted even in course of the pandemic.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/hpm.3067

Greatman Adiela Owhor

Papers

Impact of COVID-19 on access to healthcare in low- and middle-income countries: Current evidence and future recommendations.