The COVID-19 vaccines that we have been so eagerly awaiting are starting to become available in a number of countries. A growing number of people have already been inoculated.

We can finally see a time soon when we will be able to restart normal life: reopen schools, start traveling again, hug our family and friends. It would seem to be a no-brainer that everyone will be rushing to get the jabs as soon as possible, right?

Well… no, it turns out that things are not that simple or so obvious. Many people are reluctant to take a vaccine, and some are outright opposed. Before we delve into the reasons why, we need to consider whether this reluctance is a widely held attitude or simply the feeling of a small minority that has been exaggerated by the media.

In October, Nature Medicine, a highly respected scientific journal, published the results of a survey, conducted in June, of 13,000 people in 19 countries about their attitudes to COVID vaccines (and other issues).

Asked whether they would take a “proven, safe and effective vaccine,” 71.5 percent said yes. China was the country with the highest level of acceptance, at 88.6 percent, while Russia had the lowest: 54.9 percent. The US came in at 75.4 percent.

In the Arab world, TV news channel Al-Arabiya asked viewers whether they will take the vaccine as soon as it is available, wait a while to see what happens when vaccinations begin, or refuse to take it at all. The responses revealed that 24 percent plan to be vaccinated as soon as possible, 40 percent will wait a while, and 36 percent do not intend to be vaccinated at all.

Therefore there does indeed seem to be a significant level of global suspicion about the vaccine, and some degree of outright rejection. The World Health Organization considers this one of the top 10 health issues the world is facing.

What are the reasons for this hesitancy, doubt, fear, suspicion and other negative feelings some people have about a COVID vaccine?

Some surveys have asked people to explain their reluctance to accept a vaccine. The reasons focus on two main issues: the speed with which it was developed, and a lack of certainty about its safety and effectiveness.

Some point out that it usually takes years for vaccines to be developed and tested. Others note that 40 years after HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS, was identified, we still do not have a vaccine that offers protection against it — yet by some miracle, multiple vaccines (using several technologies) for COVID-19 have been developed in just nine months?

We all need to realize that the vaccines will not make the virus disappear; it is already too widespread. They will simply prevent its spread and reduce its severity.

Nidhal Guessoum

The explanation for this is simple: this unprecedented crisis has brought economies around the world to their knees and affected the daily lives of billions of people, so thousands of scientists stepped up to the challenge and governments invested billions of dollars in research to develop a vaccine ($18 billion by the US government alone).

Moreover, general scientific progress in recent years, particularly in the field of genetics, resulted in breakthroughs such as the mRNA technique, which had never been used in a vaccine before.

Turning to the questions of long-term safety and effectiveness, all the vaccines have been tested on tens of thousands of volunteers over the course of several months. Thousands of pages of data and information about the vaccines and the tests they have undergone were submitted to regulators in many countries, including the UK and the US, for review and approval.

Of course, one cannot guarantee that rare side effects might not be identified a year or more down the line after many more people are vaccinated, but a stark choice had to be made. Do we wait another year to check for rare side effects while thousands of people worldwide continue to die every day? Or do we accept the very small risk of side effects and try to save as many as we can by starting to inoculate people immediately, in particular those who are most exposed to the virus or at the greatest risk of developing life-threatening symptoms?

A third, less common but still widely held, reason for suspicion about the vaccines can broadly be categorized as conspiracy theories that question the motives of governments, pharmaceutical companies, and influential, wealthy individuals such as Bill Gates.

Finally, yet importantly, there are still many who believe, mistakenly, there are simple but effective “cures” for COVID-19 (special herbal drinks, vitamins, and so on), and so there is no need to “take a risk” on “unproven” vaccines.

How, then, can we encourage people to be vaccinated?

Firstly, it is important to build trust in official institutions such as ministries of health. We need to convince people that experts review every scrap of data about a vaccine before a decision is made on whether to approve it. These experts and their families will receive the vaccines, so we can be sure that they thoroughly check the data to ensure safety and effectiveness.

It is therefore also important to ensure that politicians, officials and other prominent figures are among the first to be vaccinated, and highlight this fact in the media.

Secondly, the vaccination of a large proportion of the population — at least 60-70 percent is required to achieve “herd immunity” — will probably take a year or more in many countries. Production capacities are limited, so it will take time to produce the billions of doses needed worldwide. A few months after the first people are vaccinated, it will become obvious to those who are concerned about safety that there are no common, serious side effects.

We all need to realize that the vaccines will not make the virus disappear; it is already too widespread. They will simply prevent its spread and reduce its severity.

We scientists, educators and communicators need to redouble our efforts to educate the public on how vaccines are developed and produced, and about their importance in a pandemic. We need to build understanding and trust in science and in official institutions.

We can see light at the end of the tunnel now — let us make sure we all manage to reach it safe and sound.

• Nidhal Guessoum is a professor at the American University of Sharjah. Twitter: @NidhalGuessoum.