Japanese Most Skeptical About Vaccines

Japan has the biggest share in the world of people who cannot make up their minds about whether vaccines are safe to use or not. According to a survey released today by UK-based nonprofit Wellcome, 55 percent of Japanese said they were unsure if vaccines were safe. 8 percent of Japanese said that they thought vaccines were not safe, compared to 33 percent in France, 24 percent in Russia and 22 percent in Switzerland.

The study concluded that there was in fact no connection between vaccine skepticism and the level of (science) education of a respondent or whether he or she lived in an urban or rural area. There was, however, a connection found between seeking out information on science and health recently and being skeptical of vaccines, hinting at the influence of a recent surge in pseudo-scientific and lifestyle literature questioning the safety of vaccines.

Many nations where a lot of people were skeptical of vaccines or downright rejected them were located in Europe, with Eastern Europe and former Soviet Republics especially affected.