Addressing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy: Lessons from the role of community participation in previous vaccination programs

The acceptance of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine has been described as a gateway to attaining herd immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The critical role of community participation (CP) has been successfully demonstrated in previous vaccination programs globally. This perspective therefore aimed to describe how CP could be used to promote COVID-19 vaccination acceptance. To promote COVID-19 vaccine acceptance, it is required that a mapping of community assets, resources, civil-based organizations, and stakeholders is done to gain insight into the community culture and value in relation to COVID-19 vaccine. This will help to address the misconceptions while prompting COVID-19 vaccination sensitization activities that are relevant to each community. It is required that policy makers understand that the adoption of a comprehensive grassroots approach lends a voice to the community and helps to utilize community-initiated and community-driven ideas on promoting COVID-19 vaccine acceptance.

Download Full-text

The Role of Risk Preferences in Responses to Messaging About COVID-19 Vaccine Take-Up

Social Psychological and Personality Science ◽

10.1177/1948550621999622 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 194855062199962

Author(s):

Jennifer S. Trueblood ◽

Abigail B. Sussman ◽

Daniel O’Leary

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Risk Preferences ◽

Herd Immunity ◽

Disease Spread ◽

Short Term ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Health Crisis ◽

Flu Vaccine ◽

Nationally Representative

Development of an effective COVID-19 vaccine is widely considered as one of the best paths to ending the current health crisis. While the ability to distribute a vaccine in the short-term remains uncertain, the availability of a vaccine alone will not be sufficient to stop disease spread. Instead, policy makers will need to overcome the additional hurdle of rapid widespread adoption. In a large-scale nationally representative survey ( N = 34,200), the current work identifies monetary risk preferences as a correlate of take-up of an anticipated COVID-19 vaccine. A complementary experiment ( N = 1,003) leverages this insight to create effective messaging encouraging vaccine take-up. Individual differences in risk preferences moderate responses to messaging that provides benchmarks for vaccine efficacy (by comparing it to the flu vaccine), while messaging that describes pro-social benefits of vaccination (specifically herd immunity) speeds vaccine take-up irrespective of risk preferences. Findings suggest that policy makers should consider risk preferences when targeting vaccine-related communications.

Download Full-text

Vaccine refusal/hesitancy—the ethical point of view

European Journal of Public Health ◽

10.1093/eurpub/ckab120.029 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 31 (Supplement_2) ◽

Author(s):

João Gentil

Keyword(s):

Ethical Issues ◽

Vaccination Campaign ◽

Herd Immunity ◽

Cost Benefit ◽

Point Of View ◽

Vaccine Hesitancy ◽

Moral Conflicts ◽

Vaccination Programs ◽

Individual Level ◽

Vaccine Refusal

Abstract Background In 2019, WHO classified vaccine hesitancy as one of the top 10 threats to global health. Vaccination is an area of excellence in nursing that has gained a new focus and has become a challenge in the provision of care and in the management field. Vaccine hesitation raises questions about mandatory vaccination, individual versus collective freedom that are highlighted in the current context due to the emergence of new vaccines. In this paper, we want to analyze and update knowledge about vaccines hesitancy from an ethical and bioethical perspective. Methods A combination of literature reviews on vaccine refusal/hesitancy, ethics and COVID-19 vaccine confidence, accessed on SciELO and PubMed databases and analysis of documents from General Directorate of Health and Ordem dos Enfermeiros (National Nurses Association). Results Vaccination programs aim is a collective protection. The desirable effects at individual level do not have the same ethical value at collective level, leading to cost-benefit imbalances. Moral conflicts between the individual and the collective, cost-benefit imbalances and the insufficiency of bioethics principles, lead us to the use of other moral values and principles, such as responsibility, solidarity and social justice, as a tool for ethical reflection problems related to COVID-19 vaccines. Conclusions There are no perfect solutions to ethical dilemmas and some optimal solutions could depend the context. In a pandemic situation, one of the most relevant ethical issues is the herd immunity since it leaves public health at risk. Equity and the principle of justice in vaccination campaign are shown daily in the nursing profession.

Download Full-text

Overcoming COVID-19 vaccination resistance when alternative policies affect the dynamics of conformism, social norms, and crowding out

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.2104912118 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 118 (25) ◽

pp. e2104912118

Author(s):

Katrin Schmelz ◽

Samuel Bowles

Keyword(s):

Herd Immunity ◽

Crowding Out ◽

Individual Freedom ◽

Panel Survey ◽

Vaccination Policy ◽

Vaccine Acceptance ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Large Panel ◽

Negative Effect ◽

Broad Policy

What is an effective vaccination policy to end the COVID-19 pandemic? We address this question in a model of the dynamics of policy effectiveness drawing upon the results of a large panel survey implemented in Germany during the first and second waves of the pandemic. We observe increased opposition to vaccinations were they to be legally required. In contrast, for voluntary vaccinations, there was higher and undiminished support. We find that public distrust undermines vaccine acceptance, and is associated with a belief that the vaccine is ineffective and, if enforced, compromises individual freedom. We model how the willingness to be vaccinated may vary over time in response to the fraction of the population already vaccinated and whether vaccination has occurred voluntarily or not. A negative effect of enforcement on vaccine acceptance (of the magnitude observed in our panel or even considerably smaller) could result in a large increase in the numbers that would have to be vaccinated unwillingly in order to reach a herd-immunity target. Costly errors may be avoided if policy makers understand that citizens’ preferences are not fixed but will be affected both by the crowding-out effect of enforcement and by conformism. Our findings have broad policy applicability beyond COVID-19 to cases in which voluntary citizen compliance is essential because state capacities are limited and because effectiveness may depend on the ways that the policies themselves alter citizens’ beliefs and preferences.

Download Full-text

Vaccine Hesitancy: The Growing Parent–Provider Divide

Asia Pacific Media Educator ◽

10.1177/1326365x19895826 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 29 (2) ◽

pp. 259-278

Author(s):

Angshuman Kashyap ◽

Sangeeta Shrivastava ◽

Pradeep Krishnatray

Keyword(s):

Interpersonal Communication ◽

Disease Susceptibility ◽

Health Workers ◽

Government Policies ◽

World Health ◽

Vaccine Hesitancy ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Parental Concerns ◽

Health Organization

Vast majority of parents continue to immunize their children against deadly infectious diseases. However, of late, growing number of them in both developed and developing nations have refused vaccination forcing the World Health Organization to declare vaccine hesitancy as one of the top ten major threats to global health. This research reviews literature published in the last few years to understand and explain the phenomenon. It identifies 10 reasons for people’s reluctance for vaccination: parental concerns, perceived disease susceptibility, parent–provider relationship, government policies, role of school authorities, weak interpersonal communication (IPC) skills of health workers, religious beliefs, role of media, social media and information on vaccines, and lack of trust. The review categorizes parents who hesitate or refuse vaccination into four categories: obedients, ditherers, doubters and defiants. Finally, it summarizes recommendations and steps that researchers and policy makers have made to stem the growing concerns regarding vaccine hesitancy.

Download Full-text

Lack of lockdown, open borders, and no vaccination in sight: is Bosnia and Herzegovina a control group?

10.1101/2021.03.01.21252700 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Adnan Fojnica ◽

Ahmed Osmanovic ◽

Nermin Đuzic ◽

Armin Fejzic ◽

Ensar Mekic ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mortality Rate ◽

Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Herd Immunity ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Vaccine Hesitancy ◽

Control Group ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Vaccine Acceptance ◽

Open Borders

AbstractBosnia and Herzegovina is among ten countries in the world with the highest mortality rate due to COVID-19 infection. Lack of lockdown, open borders, high mortality rate, no herd immunity, no vaccination plan, and strong domestic anti-vaccination movement present serious COVID-19 concerns in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In such circumstances, we set out to study if the population is willing to receive the vaccine.A cross-sectional study was conducted among 10,471 adults in Bosnia and Herzegovina to assess the attitude of participants toward COVID-19 vaccination. Using a logistic regression model, we assessed the associations of sociodemographic characteristics with vaccine rejection, reasons for vaccine hesitancy, preferred vaccine manufacturer, and information sources.Surprisingly, only 25.7% of respondents indicated they would like to get a COVID-19 vaccine, while 74.3% of respondents were either hesitant or completely rejected vaccination. The vaccine acceptance increased with increasing age, education, and income level. Major motivation of pro-vaccination behaviour was intention to achieve collective immunity (30.1%), while the leading incentive for vaccine refusal was deficiency of clinical data (30.2%). The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is shown to be eightfold more preferred vaccine compared to the other manufacturers. For the first time, vaccine acceptance among health care professionals has been reported, where only 39.4% of healthcare professionals expressed willingness to get vaccinated.With the high share of the population unwilling to vaccinate, governmental impotence in securing the vaccines supplies, combined with the lack of any lockdown measures suggests that Bosnia and Herzegovina is unlikely to put COVID-19 pandemic under control in near future.

Download Full-text

RECENT CHANGES OF HEPATITIS A EPIDEMIOLOGY IN RUSSIA AND EUROPE AS THE RATIONALES FOR PREVENTION STRATEGIES

Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases (Russian Journal) ◽

10.17816/eid40643 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 17 (3) ◽

pp. 28-34

Author(s):

V. P. Chulanov ◽

N. N. Pimenov ◽

I. V. Karandashova ◽

S. V. Komarova

Keyword(s):

Hepatitis A ◽

Hepatitis A Virus ◽

Molecular Genetic ◽

Critical Role ◽

Herd Immunity ◽

Age Groups ◽

Control Measures ◽

Prevention Strategies ◽

Molecular Genetic Diversity

The article describes results of the analysis of incidence rate of hepatitis A in Russia and 29 European countries over the period 2001 to 2008. The characteristic of hepatitis A outbreaks as well as molecular genetic diversity of hepatitis A virus in Russia and Europe has been compared. The authors analyze the state of herd immunity to hepatitis A virus in population of the territories of countries mentioned above. The results of seroprevalence study of hepatitis A virus among different age groups in Moscow are presented. The critical role of hepatitis A vaccination in the system of prevention and disease control measures is emphasized.

Download Full-text

The Barrier to Vaccination Is Not Vaccine Hesitancy: Patterns of COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance over the Course of the Pandemic in 23 Countries

10.1101/2021.04.23.21253857 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ammina Kothari ◽

Gerit Pfuhl ◽

David Schieferdecker ◽

Casey Taggart Harris ◽

Caitlin Tidwell ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Herd Immunity ◽

Longitudinal Survey ◽

Vaccine Hesitancy ◽

Vaccine Acceptance ◽

Large Numbers ◽

The World ◽

Main Barrier ◽

Actual Vaccine ◽

Over Time ◽

Intent To Vaccinate

AbstractBackgroundAt present, evidence is inconclusive regarding what factors influence vaccine intent, and whether there are widespread disparities across populations and time. The current study provides new insights regarding vaccine intent and potential differences across 23 countries and over time.MethodsOur data come from a unique longitudinal survey that contains responses from Facebook users (N=1,425,172) from the 23 countries from four continents collected in 18 waves from July 2020 through March 2021.ResultsWe find that vaccine intent varies significantly across countries and over time. Across countries, there are notable disparities in intent to vaccinate. Regarding time, intent has recently reached an all-time high. Our data demonstrates that intent to vaccinate has increased as countries have deployed vaccines on larger scales with undecidedness declining. However, there are some countries where vaccine intent is stagnant and in one country – Egypt – where it seems to have declined.InterpretationsLarge numbers of citizens across the world are willing to get vaccinated. In the vast majority of countries in our sample, these were high enough to reach more conservative levels of herd immunity1 if combined with numbers of persons already infected. As such, the main barrier to vaccination is not vaccine hesitancy, but the shortage of vaccines. This sends a clear message to politicians who need to work on a quick and fair distribution of vaccine; and to scientists who need to focus their attention on understanding remaining pockets of vaccine skepticism or undecidedness and on factors that explain actual vaccine behavior, rather than intent.

Download Full-text

Role of Information Technology in COVID19 Vaccination Drive: An Analysis of the COVID-19 Global Beliefs, Behaviors, and Norms Survey

10.20944/preprints202104.0552.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Debjyoti Talukdar ◽

Kire Stojkovski ◽

Daniel Suarez

Keyword(s):

Information Technology ◽

Social Norms ◽

Essential Role ◽

Preventive Measures ◽

Critical Role ◽

Vaccine Acceptance ◽

Factors Associated ◽

Diverse Communities ◽

Role Of Information

With the onset of the COVID19 pandemic, information technology has played a critical role in healthcare. A broad spectrum of information technology tools and applications played an essential role to create awareness of the COVID19 vaccination drive and its health benefits. We use the COVID-19 Global Beliefs, Behaviors, and Norms Survey for analysis of prevalence and factors associated with vaccination drives among men and women aged 20-80 years in 60 countries worldwide. Our analysis of the global survey offers a unique perspective about the role of information technology associated with vaccination drives involving social norms and human behavior among 437,236 respondents. The international survey was organized using a pre-registered randomized experiment demonstrating the role of technology in reaching out to people based in diverse communities and evaluating their beliefs, behavior, and social norms. The study shows that vaccine acceptance can vary due to descriptive norms. Our analysis shows 65.06% of people all over the globe are willing to get vaccinated and a large proportion of the population thinks that the COVID19 pandemic is a viable threat to the community and preventive measures need to be taken including vaccination drives.

Download Full-text

Participation Rate of Employees of RS X In The Covid-19 Vaccination Program to Break The Chain The Spread of Covid-19

Muhammadiyah International Public Health and Medicine Proceeding ◽

10.53947/miphmp.v1i1.47 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 205-210

Author(s):

Kristianto Kristianto

Keyword(s):

Side Effects ◽

Health Workers ◽

Herd Immunity ◽

Participation Rate ◽

Vaccination Program ◽

Vaccination Programs ◽

Negative Context ◽

Religious Reasons ◽

Motivation To Participate

The COVID-19 vaccination aims to reduce the transmission of COVID-19, reduce morbidity and mortality due to COVID-19, achieve herd immunity, and protect the community from COVID-19 to remain socially and economically productive. The role of social media in the era of digital technology can bring positive things as well as negative things, in a positive context there are invitations in the form of motivation to participate in vaccination programs. Meanwhile, in a negative context, the COVID-19 vaccination has become a cornering or scary hoax. However, this news cannot be verified. However, this news greatly influences a person's decision to participate or not in the vaccination program in addition to doubts about the safety of vaccines, doubts about the effectiveness of vaccines, distrust of vaccines, fears of side effects such as fever and pain, and religious reasons. This study will explain the level of participation of workers who work in Hospital X in receiving a prioritized vaccination program for health workers. The research method used is descriptive, where data is collected in the period from January 29, 2021, to May 10, 2021. The vaccination program which is an alternative to breaking the chain of the spread of COVID-19 is welcomed by its implementation in Hospital X with the participation rate of the results. reached 92%. The remaining 8% were not vaccinated because they did not receive a recommendation from a doctor or refused the vaccine because they were worried about the side effects.

Download Full-text

COVID19 Vaccine Intentions in South Africa: Health Communication Strategy to Address Vaccine Hesitancy

10.21203/rs.3.rs-533888/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Umakrishnan Kollamparambil ◽

Adeola Oyenubi ◽

Chijioke Nwosu

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Health Communication ◽

Perceived Risk ◽

Herd Immunity ◽

National Income ◽

Population Group ◽

Communication Strategy ◽

African Population ◽

Vaccine Hesitancy ◽

Vaccine Acceptance

Abstract Background: Widespread vaccine acceptance is key to achieving herd immunity through vaccination against COVID19, especially because the available vaccines do not have 100% efficacy. The continued infection amongst the unvaccinated can lead to heightened risk of further virus mutation, exposing even those vaccinated to new virus strains. Therefore, there are social benefits in minimising vaccine hesitancy. The objective of this study is to assess the level of COVID19 vaccine hesitancy in South Africa, identify the socio-economic patterns in vaccine hesitancy and to develop a targeted health communication strategy based on the HBM and EPPM models in order to improve vaccine acceptance. Methods: The study uses the nationally representative National Income Dynamics Study - Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (NIDS-CRAM) survey. The analysis combines univariate and bivariate statistics together with multivariate regression models like binomial/ordinal logit and seemingly unrelated regressions.Results: The study finds that vaccine acceptance is lower than that of non-pharmaceutical intervention life face-mask use. Only 55% are fully accepting of the vaccine, while a further 16% are moderately accepting of vaccines. Together, vaccine acceptance is estimated at 70.8% and vaccine hesitancy against COVID19 is estimated at 29.2% amongst the adult South African population. The reasons cited for vaccine hesitancy are primarily due to concerns regarding the side-effects and efficacy of vaccine. the study has identified perceived risk of infection with the mediating role of efficacy as a key predictor of vaccine intention. Apart from vulnerability to infection, those perceiving higher severity of risk (elderly and those with chronic illness) have lower hesitancy. Higher awareness of COVID19 related information and higher household income are correlated with lower vaccine hesitancy. The non-black African population group has significantly high vaccine hesitancy compared to black Africans. Males on average have lower hesitancy compared to females, and unmarried/unpartnered individuals are found to have higher hesitancy. Conclusions: There are other significant differences across socio-economic and demographic variables in vaccine hesitancy. From a communication perspective, it is imperative to continue risk messaging, hand in hand with clearer information on the efficacy of the vaccines

Download Full-text