Implications of COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy: Results of Online Bulletin Board Interviews

Abstract

Reluctance to accept vaccination against COVID-19 poses a significant public health risk and is known to be a multi-determined phenomenon. We conducted online focus groups, or “bulletin boards,” in order to probe the nature of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and its implications. Participants were 94 individuals from three distinct U.S. geographical areas and represented a range of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Six themes emerged from the 3 day-long bulletin boards: the most trusted source of health information sought is the personal physician; information about health is nevertheless obtained from a wide variety of sources; stories about adverse side effects are especially “sticky”; government health institutions like CDC and FDA are not trusted; most respondents engaged in individualistic reasoning; and there is a wide spectrum of attitudes toward vaccination.

Utilizing Listening Sessions to Assess COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance among Asian Americans in Michigan

“…The importance of trusting the source of information was also presented in the listening sessions. This is consistent with the findings of Gorman et al [ 12 ] and Jacobi and Vaidyanathan [ 11 ], who reported that individuals of racial/ethnic minority communities are more likely to trust COVID-19 vaccine information that comes from their physician or trusted community member, respectively. In response, CDHIS team members trained 51 trusted messengers who were members of the community and partnered with local health professionals in an effort to provide consistent and accurate information regarding COVID-19 vaccines to community members.…”

“…Findings of Jacobi and Vaidyanathan [ 11 ] also support the notion that individuals of race or ethnic minority are more likely to trust information that came from their own community. Gorman et al [ 12 ] found that study participants saw physicians and primary care providers to be their most trusted source of information. Gender differences were also found as women were more likely than men to be vaccine hesitant [ 11 ].…”

Vaccination hesitancy: To be vaccinated, or not to be vaccinated, that is the question in the era of COVID‐19

“…Secondly, we collected only a few socio‐demographic information: our sample was mainly composed of women with a variable age range and education level. However, the gender distribution in our sample is highly representative of the Italian population where men were found to be more prone to undertake vaccination (Gorman et al., 2021 ; Larson et al., 2016 ) than women who, on the contrary, seem to be more likely to show hesitant or resistant attitudes toward vaccination (Biswas et al., 2021 ). With regard to education, we found that in this study vaccinated individuals have higher education compared to anti‐vaxxers, in line with previous studies (Troiano & Nardi, 2021 ).…”

“…Additionally, underlying causes of vaccine hesitancy are an intricate interaction between mistrust in government and health authorities (Lazarus et al., 2021 ) combined with novel misinformation on vaccine safety and disease risk arising daily (Larson & Broniatowski, 2021 ). Among the other influencing factors, previous studies have identified the following: lower age, loss of income during the pandemic, no intention of taking the flu vaccine, low confidence in the COVID‐19 vaccine and the health service, worse perception of government measures, perception of the information provided as inconsistent and contradictory (Giuliani et al., 2021 ; Gorman et al., 2021 ; Soares et al., 2021 ; Troiano e Nardi, 2021 ). Additionally, the individual levels of anxiety, fear, and individual risk seem to play an important role in vaccine refusal (Bendau et al., 2021 ).…”

“…Although vaccination is an individual choice, vaccine‐hesitant people substantially affect the pandemic trajectory, which may compromise present efforts to contain COVID‐19 with negative implications for the entire healthcare system (Olivera‐Mesa et al., 2022 ). To date, to the best of our knowledge, while most studies investigating attitudes toward COVID‐19 vaccination among the general population adopted a quantitative approach (Giuliani et al., 2021 ; Gorman et al., 2021 ; Larson et al., 2016 ), only a few empirical investigations have utilized open‐ended questions to reach a deeper understanding of the cognitive and emotional factors characterizing vaccine‐hesitant individuals (e.g., Geana et al., 2021 ; Morales et al., 2022 ).To fill this gap, we decided to conduct a qualitative study on a sample of the Italian‐hesitant population, since it is important to deepen the understanding of this phenomenon by exploring the specific beliefs and emotions that influence an individual's decision to delay or refuse the vaccine.…”