Abstract
The World Health Organization has identified vaccine hesitancy as a top health concern. Emerging research shows that those who are hesitant may still get vaccinated; however, little is known about those who say they are hesitant but still get vaccinated. Most people have high trust in several sources of COVID-19 information, and trust in certain information sources such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and health care providers was associated with being vaccinated. This study explored trusted information sources among hesitant adopters in the United States with a survey respondents completed while waiting after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine dose. The study included (n = 867) respondents. The majority of respondents were female (60.21%); were between the ages of 18 and 44 years old (71.97%); and were diverse, with most identifying as White (44.54%) or Hispanic/Latinx (32.55%). Hesitant adopters reported multiple trusted sources of COVID-19 vaccine information, which can be grouped into four emergent subthemes: (1) Health care/Medical science, (2) Personal relationships, (3) News and social media, and (4) Individual/Myself. Some respondents expressed a distrust of all sources of COVID-19 vaccine information, despite receiving the vaccine, describing a lack of trust in traditional sources of information such as the mainstream media or government. This study contributes to the literature by documenting trusted sources of COVID-19 vaccine information among hesitant adopters in the United States. Findings provide important insights about respondents’ trusted sources of COVID-19 vaccine information that can inform future public health messaging campaigns intended to increase vaccine uptake among hesitant adopters.
Highlights
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported the first laboratoryconfirmed case of COVID-19 in the United States (US) in January 2020 [1], and since that time, more than 37,768,911 cases of COVD-19 have been documented in the US [2]
While some studies suggest that there has been a decline in trust of health care providers and organizations as sources of information related to COVID-19 [35,37,38,39], our study and others [33,34,35] document that health care providers and organizations are the greatest sources of trusted information regarding COVID-19, including among hesitant adopters
This study makes an important contribution to the literature as the first mixed-methods study on trusted sources of COVID-19 vaccine information among hesitant adopters
Summary
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported the first laboratoryconfirmed case of COVID-19 in the United States (US) in January 2020 [1], and since that time, more than 37,768,911 cases of COVD-19 have been documented in the US [2]. COVID-19 vaccinations began in December 2020 [3], with high demand as early adopters received the vaccine. Low vaccination rates are often attributed to vaccine hesitancy, with minority communities having the highest levels of vaccine hesitancy and the lowest vaccination rates [7]. Emerging research shows that those who are hesitant may still get vaccinated [12]. Very little is known about those who say they are hesitant but still get vaccinated [13], leaving many questions about “hesitant adopters” unanswered
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