Nature reports:

People in low- and middle-income countries tend to be much more willing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine than are those in the United States, according to an analysis that included poll results from a dozen countries.

The analysis, reported on 16 July in Nature Medicine, found that 80% of individuals surveyed in ten low- and middle- income countries (LMICs) in Asia, Africa and South America were willing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, compared with 65% in the United States. Upper-middle-income Russia is an outlier: only 30% of people there were willing to have the jab.

The study authors say the results suggest that ensuring equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines worldwide is not only a moral imperative, but also a powerful way to stem the spread of the virus: lower levels of hesitancy make widespread vaccination easier.

“Beyond the equity concerns, sharing vaccines is also the most efficient thing to do,” says Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak, an economist at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and a co-author of the study. “You want to give vaccines to people who are eager to take them.” [Continue reading…]