Scientists mystified, wary, as Africa avoids COVID disaster HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — At a busy market in a poor township outside Harare this week, Nyasha Ndou kept his mask in his pocket, as hundreds of other people, mostly unmasked, jostled to buy and sell fruit and vegetables displayed on wooden tables and plastic sheets. AP NEWS

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Promoting COVID-19 vaccine acceptance: recommendations from the Lancet Commission on Vaccine Refusal, Acceptance, and Demand in the US

The Lancet Commission on Vaccine Refusal, Acceptance, and Demand in the USA formed to address the persistent and important threat to public health in the USA posed by suboptimal uptake of some vaccines. ...

Since January, 2021, 20% of adults in the USA have consistently reported that they will either get vaccinated only if required for work, or not get vaccinated at all.

One of the most pressing factors contributing to this reluctance has been the unprecedented political polarisation that has affected virtually all aspects of the US pandemic response, as a partisan divide emerged during the previous administration.

Research in political science, communications, and public health have shown that the politicisation of COVID-19 and the public health response to it has been highly detrimental to the success of the US response to the pandemic. ...