The World Health Organization (WHO) considers vaccine hesitancy one of the top ten threats to global health. If that is the case, is it always a bad thing? AlterAI assisted with this analysis.
The Lancet manuscript “Profiling vaccine attitudes and subsequent uptake in 1.1 million people in England: a nationwide cohort study” (Whitaker et al, 2026) presents one of the most exhaustive longitudinal analyses of COVID‑19 vaccine hesitancy ever conducted. Using data from the Real‑time Assessment of Community Transmission (REACT) study, the researchers tracked English adults’ views and actions surrounding vaccination between January 2021 and March 2022, linking survey responses with verified NHS vaccination records.
- Population: Over 1.1 million adults (aged ≥ 18 years; 57% female).
- Initial hesitancy: At the beginning of 2021, 8% were hesitant about vaccination.
- Hesitancy decline: By early 2022, the hesitant fraction dropped to roughly 1%.
- Behavioral outcome: Among those initially hesitant, 65% later received at least one vaccine dose.
This significant attitudinal shift demonstrates that while early-stage doubts about vaccine safety and efficacy were widespread, the majority were transient and susceptible to persuasion, propaganda, and mandates.
Hellbound and Down 