https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8842-5702
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ABSTRACT
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has disproportionately impacted older individuals, those with lower educational attainment, and Black and Hispanic populations, yet vaccine hesitancy remains prevalent. Because widespread uptake of COVID-19 vaccines is critical to end the pandemic, addressing vaccine hesitancy is an important public health priority. Between April 1, 2020 and March 16, 2021, we have repeatedly surveyed a nationally representative online panel of adults and have tracked their stated likelihood of getting COVID-19 vaccinations. We present new evidence that in recent months disparities in self-reported likelihood of COVID-19 vaccination have narrowed by race/ethnicity, with an increasing proportion of Black individuals and Hispanic individuals indicating that they are likely to get a vaccine. At the same time, younger adults have progressively become less likely than older adults to state they will get a COVID-19 vaccine. Most vaccine-hesitant individuals are concerned about both vaccine efficacy and safety and do not trust the vaccine development or vaccine approval process. We conclude that outreach efforts to minority populations may be achieving their objectives in raising confidence in COVID-19 vaccines, but special outreach efforts are needed to address both vaccine hesitancy among younger adults and mistrust in the vaccine development and approval process.
Acknowledgments
We thank Paul Simon, MD, and Rashmi Shetgiri, MD, of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health for their scholarly input on an early draft of this manuscript. None of the individuals received compensation for their contributions to this study. The research presented in this paper is that of the authors and does not reflect the official policy of the NIH or NSF.
Conceptualization: Szilagyi, Thomas, Shah, Vizueta, Kapteyn
Data curation: Cui
Formal Analysis: Cui, Vangala, Kapteyn
Funding acquisition: Szilagyi, Kapteyn
Investigation: Thomas, Kapteyn
Methodology: Szilagyi, Thomas, Shah, Vizueta, Kapteyn
Project administration: Szilagyi, Vizueta
Supervision: Szilagyi, Kapteyn
Visualization: Szilagyi, Cui, Vangala
Writing – original draft: Szilagyi
Writing – review & editing: All authors
Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest
Dr. Szilagyi reported receiving a grant from UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine - Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research Award Program for personnel and statistical time. Dr. Szilagyi reported receiving funding from NIH NCATS UCLA CTSI during the conduct of this study.
Dr. Kapteyn reported receiving funding from University of Southern California (USC) for partial support for the USC survey team, grants from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for partial support for the UAS survey, grants from the National Institute on Aging for partial support for the UAS survey, and grants from National Science Foundation for partial support for the UAS during the conduct of the study.
Dr. Thomas reported receiving funding from the University of Southern California and the National Institute on Aging.
Role of the Funder/Sponsor
The sponsors had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.