Title : Global COVID-19 vaccine policies – A literature review
Abstract:
Background.
The research rationale is that many economic, policy, and government implications result from the COVID-19 pandemic. Hilton published a literature review on COVID-19 research specific to Australia including policy and media releases. This Australian scientific literature assessed the social impact, government, and policy implications. This presentation expands on previous research by assessing the quantity of literature and topics identified in the scientific literature that relate to global vaccine policies.
Methods.
A search strategy was created using the MeSH Browser. The MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) is the NLM controlled vocabulary thesaurus used for indexing articles for PubMed and is at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh.
The search strategy created was: ((((("SARS-CoV-2"[Mesh])) OR "Coronavirus"[Mesh]) OR "COVID-19"[Mesh]) AND "Vaccines"[Mesh]) AND "Policy"[Mesh].
Results.
The search retrieved 236 results of which 97 were in the last year. 16 results were reviews, and 2 were randomized controlled trials. 107 retrievals had no abstract available. 3 abstracts were in Spanish. Of the 16 reviews, there were a range of varied, and important topics for consideration. One manuscript reviewed the policy dynamics of COVID-19 vaccination in Ghana while another focused on vaccination policies based upon scientific evidence in Japan. One other review focused upon the Medical Liability of the Vaccinating Doctor: Comparing Policies in European Union while another reviewed general vaccination ethics. A further review, looked at the comparative analysis of COVID-19 vaccination certificates in 12 countries, while another reviewed the unintended consequences of COVID-19 vaccine policy. Another topic dealt with the Role of Serology Testing and Vaccine market access pathways in the EU27 and the United Kingdom. Various other topics that were not country-specific included vaccine effects on women and the immune response. The two randomized controlled trials were both published in 2022. One reported on the Effect of Text Message Reminders and Vaccine Reservations on Adherence to a Health System COVID-19 Vaccination Policy. The other was on the topic of How to boost the boosters? A survey-experiment on the effectiveness of different policies aimed at enhancing acceptance of a "Seasonal" vaccination against COVID-19.
Conclusion.
The above review results which were summarized show the important medical and scientific considerations that are associated with vaccination and policy. Some of this scientific evidence is in regards to effectiveness. Other important issues such as medical liability and ethics, documentation and certification, markets, reminders, and how to increase uptake were also discussed in these reviews. This presentation will highlight the important policy implications regarding COVID-19 vaccines across various different countries.
Audience Take Away:
- What background information is available in terms of publications on COVID in relation to vaccine policy within Australia.
- How to systematically search for high-quality evidence on the topic of COVID-19 vaccines using the Pubmed MeSH terms.
- How to apply filters to select article types, year of publication, and language.
- To understand the range of topics that the reviews retrieved deal with in terms of global COVID-19 vaccine policy.
- To be able to identify what issues are of importance for the delegates in terms of what country they may reside in.
