Abstract
The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has globally caused widespread disruption, morbidity and mortality. The uptake of COVID-19 vaccination is critical for minimising further impacts of the pandemic. Health and aged care workers (HACWs) play a central role in public confidence in vaccines and are one of the priority groups for COVID-19 vaccination in Australia. Qualitative phone interviews with 19 HACWs aged 21–50 years old from New South Wales, Australia, were conducted, and the data were analysed thematically in order to understand the factors influencing HACWs’ acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination. We found that HACWs reported a continuum of COVID-19 vaccination intentions with 12 enthusiastically accepting and 7 hesitant. Using the Behavioral and Social Drivers of COVID-19 Vaccination (BeSD) Framework, we found that participants’ acceptance of vaccination was primarily driven by their perceptions of COVID-19 vaccination (such as safety, risk and benefits) and by the information sources, people and norms they trusted. Informed by study findings, we propose several communication strategies which may be helpful in addressing HACWs vaccination acceptance. We note however that as the pandemic continues, further studies with HACWs from diverse backgrounds are needed in order to provide accurate data on diverse motivational and practical drivers of evolving perceptions and attitudes towards vaccination.
Highlights
The relative lack of strongly rejecting individuals is a positive finding for communication planning to strengthen vaccine acceptance among Health and aged care workers (HACWs) [17,18], caution needs to be taken with interpreting results given the small sample size
Australia has had a very limited number of COVID-19 cases to date, which is different relative to the context in many other countries
New insights highlight the importance of publicly acknowledging that many HACWs make community-focused vaccination decisions; identifying and enabling HACWs’ access to reliable, evidence-based and trusted sources of vaccination information; making vaccination related information and concepts easy to understand; and actively debunking misinformation
Summary
The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, has caused widespread disruption, morbidity and mortality globally. The uptake of COVID-19 vaccination will be critical for minimising further impacts of the pandemic [1]. The availability of vaccination, does not automatically translate into uptake. Vaccination uptake is influenced by various factors, including access to and affordability of immunisation services, awareness of vaccination, social norms, misinformation, perceptions of vaccines and attitudes towards vaccination [2,3]
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