Top 11 Reasons for COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy – First: Mistrust of Government

Mistrust of the government is the main reason for hesitation about vaccines.

People’s confidence in government approval of a safe and effective vaccine against COVID-19 is the biggest driver for vaccine uptake, an Australian study finds.

Second on the list of motivations identified in the study is the vaccine’s perceived effectiveness in protecting others in the community.

The next two most common causes of vaccine hesitancy have been found to be “free-riding”, where individuals believe they can benefit from others using the vaccine without being immunized themselves, and conspiracy beliefs about vaccination, which change the attitude of “anti- vaxxers”. .”

The study, conducted by researchers at the Center for Business Intelligence & Data Analytics at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), sampled more than 4,300 respondents in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Kingdom, and found 11 factors were the factors that enabled or hindered vaccination against COVID-19.

“This study provides strong insights for improving vaccination coverage, with the challenge of implementing one of the most important vaccination programs in human history,” said Associate Professor Paul Burke, deputy director of the Center for Business Intelligence & Data Analytics. at the UTS Business School.

“While the development of an effective vaccine offering is essential, such programs will not be successful unless people are vaccinated. This study tells us the who and the why to encourage greater adoption.”

Overall, 66 percent of respondents agreed that they would receive COVID-19 vaccination. Australians had the highest intent rates (73 percent), followed by Canada (66 percent), the United Kingdom (64 percent), New Zealand (62 percent) and the United States (55 percent).

At the bottom of the list of vaccination drivers were individuals’ concerns about the severity of COVID-19 if caught and how susceptible they were to getting infected, although both were significant in explaining the vaccine’s hesitation.

“Many factors are causing vaccine hesitancy. Using the health-beliefs model as a starting point, we examined a number of factors related to the perceived threat of the disease, balanced against the benefits and risks of vaccination. What was interesting was that we were also responsible for how people rated these risks to themselves, but also to others in their communities,” said Associate Professor Burke.

The model controlled for individual differences such as age, income, and gender, as well as the individual’s overall health.

Individuals who had lower vaccination coverage were more likely to be younger or unemployed, but not looking for work. Higher rates of COVID-19 vaccine uptake were found in older individuals, the unemployed looking for work, and those previously vaccinated against flu. People with more altruistic and collectivistic beliefs were also significantly more likely to be vaccinated.

Drivers of vaccination intentions against COVID-19 (large to small)

1. Rely on government approval for a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine (+)
2. Perceived effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination for others (+)
3. Perceived Ability to Ride (-)
4. Conspiracy Views About Vaccination (-)
5. Observed Side Effects of COVID-19 Vaccine (+)
6. Perceived effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination for the individual (+)
7. Observed Availability of COVID-19 Vaccine (+)
8. Perceived illness severity for others (+)
9. Perceived susceptibility to COVID-19 for others (+)
10. Perceived disease severity for the individual (+)
11. Perceived susceptibility to COVID-19 for the individual (+)

Reference: “Enablers and barriers to COVID-19 vaccine uptake: An international study of perceptions and intentions” by Paul F.Burke, Daniel Masters and Graham Massey, July 23, 2021, Vaccine.
DOI: 10.116/j.vaccine.2021.07.056