What drives vaccine hesitancy?

While effective public health messaging may help combat vaccine hesitancy among the general public, alternative policy solutions are needed for a significant minority with strongly held beliefs, a recent study has found.

Researchers conducted a representative longitudinal online survey among over 3,000 adults in Australia, seeking to examine demographic, political, and social attitudes toward the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and vaccines against it.

Overall, nearly 60 percent of respondents said that they would “definitely get the vaccine” and 28.7 percent showed low levels of hesitancy, saying that they were uncertain, but were likely to get immunized.

On the other hand, 7.2 percent remained uncertain but more likely to not get vaccinated, while 5.5 percent were outright resistant, saying that they would definitely not get immunized against COVID-19.

Women were less likely than men to agree to getting the vaccine, as well as were more likely to be hesitant and resistant. On the other hand, older participants tended to be more open to the vaccine and intended to get immunized once available, particularly those aged 55–64, 65–74, and ≥75 years. Those who had completed undergraduate or postgraduate studies were also more accepting of the vaccine.

Notably, respondents who lived in more disadvantaged households tended to be more resistant to getting vaccinated, as were those who thought that COVID-19 had been overblown. Participants who were more religious were also less likely to be open to vaccination.

“For a significant minority of the population with strongly held beliefs that are the likely drivers of vaccination intentions, alternative policy measures may well be needed to achieve sufficient vaccination coverage,” the researchers said.