The COVID-19 pandemic is a stark reminder of the importance of immunisation in preventing disease outbreaks and protecting public health. In particular, safeguarding the most clinically vulnerable from COVID-19 has become a crucial priority.

Yet while COVID-19 vaccine uptake has been high in clinical risk – or “at-risk” – groups, uptake for other routine vaccinations remains low. For example, only around half (53%) of at-risk people in England received the flu vaccine during the 2020/21 flu season. Uptake for the pneumococcal vaccine was even lower, at just 17% between 2018 and 2020.[1]

As such, finding solutions to increase uptake is vital. Through conversations with at-risk people, condition-focused charities and medical experts, our latest findings highlight the current practices, barriers and potential solutions associated with routine vaccination. Our research has found a number of factors that contribute to low uptake, including:

• Communication barriers, such as misinformation, inaccessible information and inconsistent messaging
• Structural barriers, due to a lack of trust in public organisations and fear of stigma and discrimination from healthcare providers
• Personal factors, such as needle phobias, conflicts with individual choices, time constraints, medical pressures and age
• Accessibility issues, such as physical and geographical barriers, inflexibility of appointments and a lack of vaccine supplies

To overcome these barriers, we’ve identified three key opportunities to help improve vaccination uptake in at-risk people:

• Improved vaccination communications and information, such as targeted communications and personalised messaging
• Closer collaborations and partnerships between charities, community leaders, public health groups and pharmacies
• Easier access to vaccination through innovative solutions and better signposting to vaccine locations

These discussions have informed our final report, as well as a good practice guide aimed at equipping charities with ideas on how to encourage routine vaccination.

This project has been commissioned by MSD.

Author: Patrick Swain

Notes

1. Pneumococcal vaccine data includes the proportion of adults aged 2 to 64 years who were newly identified as being at-risk between 1 April 2018 and 31 March 2019, and received a vaccine between 1 April 2018 and 31 March 2020. Cumulative pneumococcal vaccine uptake as a proportion of adults aged 2 to 64 years at risk anytime up to 31 March 2020 is 42%.