WOULD you be reluctant to take a new coronavirus vaccine?

A brainy professor from the University of Brighton says governments will need to adopt ten key steps to boost the number of people getting jabs.

Jeff French spoke on a podcast about what points governments have to think about if a Covid-19 vaccine is ready in the next few months.

His comments come after an Oxford University vaccine trial with medicine maker AstraZeneca was halted this week when a volunteer became ill.

Prof French, a social marketing expert, said the public will need to be convinced of the safety of any coronavirus jabs that are tested and deemed safe to use.

He said: “Let’s project forward a few months. January, February next year we have a vaccine that works, that’s safe and we’ve managed to produce millions of doses, now the job is to get it out there.

“So there’s a logistical job, but very importantly there’s also a promotional job, because a lot of people will be saying no way am I going to have that, I don’t trust it.

“If we do these ten things, chances are the uptake of the vaccine will increase and vaccine hesitancy will be lowered.

“So that was the basic thought, let’s get ahead of the game, let’s start planning now, let’s condense down and make it more accessible for governments and professional organisations.

“Let’s take what’s known and start to use those ten building blocks to develop a programme that will hopefully ensure we get a vast majority of the population vaccinated and we get back to normal – or a new normal.”

More than 170 teams worldwide are working on a vaccine, with some in stage three of large scale trials, with the hope of finding an effective way to inoculate people later this year or early next year.

Prof French has written a paper called Key Guidelines in Developing a Pre-Emptive Covid-19 Vaccination Uptake Promotion Strategy.

Among his ten points are how to engage people with traditional media, social media, and community engagement.

But building trust and alliances within and across government departments is also a “crucial aspect” of getting the vaccine out there.

Prof French works at Brighton Business School and also alongside the United Nations, and is the chief executive of Strategic Social Marketing Ltd.

He said governments across the world, including the UK, America, France and Germany have reviewed his work.

Prof French said: “Global elimination of Covid 19 is a 20 or 30 year project and it’s going to potentially exacerbate inequalities that already exist. I really hope that the UK, as it’s been saying, will be a global leader in promoting not just vaccine uptake in the UK, but vaccine uptake on a global basis.”