Background: After the emergence of the first vaccines against the COVID-19, public health authorities have promoted mass vaccination in order to achieve herd immunity and reduce the effects of the disease. Vaccination rates have differed between countries, depending on supply (availability of resources) and demand (altruism and resistance to vaccination) factors.
Methods: This work considers the hypothesis that individuals' health altruism has been an important factor to explain the different levels of vaccination between countries, using the number of transplants as a proxy for altruism. Taking European Union's countries to remove, as far as possible, supply factors that might affect vaccination, we carry out cross-sectional regressions for the most favorable date of the vaccination process (maximum vaccination speed) and for each month during the vaccination campaign.
Results: Our findings confirm that altruism has affected vaccination rates against the COVID-19. We find a direct relationship between transplants rates (proxy variable) and vaccination rates during periods in which the decision to be vaccinated depended on the individual's choice, without supply restrictions. The results show that other demand factors have worked against vaccination: political polarization and belonging to the group of countries of the former Eastern bloc.
Conclusions: Altruism is a useful tool to define future vaccination strategies, since it favors the individuals' awareness for vaccination.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13561-022-00415-6 | DOI Listing |
Ageing Res Rev
January 2025
Medical Science and Technology Innovation Center, Shandong Key Laboratory of Oncology, Shandong Cancer Hospital and Institute, Shandong First Medical University and Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, 440 Jiyan Road, Jinan, Shandong 250117, P R China; School of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences, University of The Gambia; Department of Medical Microbiology, Central South University Changsha, Hunan Provinces, China. Electronic address:
The trillions of microbial populations residing in the gut have recently shown that they can be used as a remedy for various diseases. The gut microbiota-brain-axis interface is one unique pathway that the microbiota demonstrates its medicinal value. This medicinal value is further seen when there is a decline in gut microbial diversity (dysbiosis).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHum Vaccin Immunother
December 2025
Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Southeast University, Nanjing, PR China.
Hepatitis B (Hep B) remains a critical public health issue globally, particularly in Tibet, where vaccination rates and influencing factors among college students are yet understudied. This study applies a cross-sectional design to investigate the Hep B vaccination rate among 1,126 college students in Tibet and utilizes the expanded theory of planned behavior (ETPB) to identify vaccination behavior intention (BI) and vaccination behavior (VB). Stratified cluster sampling across three universities was used to assess behavioral attitudes (BA), subjective norms (SN), perceived behavioral control (PBC), past vaccination history (PVH) and vaccination knowledge (VK), and used structural equation modeling (SEM) for model validation and multi-group comparison.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Med Virol
January 2025
Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.
Mathematical models of viral dynamics are crucial in understanding infection trajectories. However, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) viral load data often includes limited sparse observations with significant heterogeneity. This study aims to: (1) understand the impact of patient characteristics in shaping the temporal viral load trajectory and (2) establish a data collection protocol (DCP) to reliably reconstruct individual viral load trajectories.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Med Virol
January 2025
Centro Internacional de Vacunas, Cali, Colombia.
A total of 5011 adult volunteers attending vaccination centers in different regions of Colombia were enrolled in a 1-year prospective observational cohort study to evaluate the immunogenicity and effectiveness of SARS-CoV-2-based vaccines as part of a National Vaccine Program established to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. Following informed consent, 5,011 participants underwent a sociodemographic survey and PCR testing to assess SARS-CoV-2 infection. Blood samples were collected, and serum fractions were obtained from a participant subsample (n = 3441) at six-time points to assess virus-specific IgG responses to the Spike protein, its Receptor Binding Domain, and the Nucleoprotein by ELISA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfect Dis Model
June 2025
School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 211166, China.
Background: At the end of 2022, China adjusted its coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) prevention and control strategy. How this adjustment affected the cumulative infection rate is debated, and how second booster dose vaccination affected the pandemic remains unclear.
Methods: We collected COVID-19 case data for China's mainland from December 7, 2022, to January 7, 2023, reported by the World Health Organization.
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