COVID-19 Vaccination Hesitancies: A Spanish-Language Focus Group Analysis in Texas

ABSTRACT

COVID-19 related health disparities are prevalent among higher risk populations like the Hispanic community. Vaccination is one readily available public health tool, yet vaccine uptake is lower among minority populations and hesitations and concerns are high. In the present study, interpersonal and media sources of information about COVID-19 were discussed in a series of six focus groups with Spanish-language dominant and bilingual English-Spanish respondents in a large metropolitan area in Texas. Participants reported using legacy media as a main source of information about COVID-19 vaccines and encountered conspiracy theories and misinformation on social media. Using the Health Belief Model as the theoretical lens, we found individuals’ and family members’ perceived susceptibility to COVID-19 played a part in participants wanting to find and get the vaccine. Provider recommendations may have served as cues to action. Ease of receiving the vaccines at church and pharmacies may have served to boost participants self-efficacy. Perceived barriers include vaccine specific reasons such as the fast pace of initial authorization, side effects, and long-term effects along with conspiracy theories. Prevailing information gaps regarding the COVID-19 vaccines and the resulting uncertainty are discussed. Understanding information sources and the trust Hispanic communities place in these sources is important in designing effective health messages.

Disclosure statements

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

All authors contributed to the material preparation, data collection, and original draft editing. KC, GEB, CMS, CYJ, TC, and JR contributed to conceptualization and funding acquisition. Data analyses were performed by KC, GEB, CMS, CYJ, and TC. The first draft of the manuscript was written by CYJ, KC, GEB, and CMS, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Data availability statement

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to privacy concerns, but the deidentified interview transcripts are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Ethics approvals

We sought Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval; however, we were informed the study was considered a “community project” under the CDC funding categories and exempted from the approval process.

Notes

1. Pan-ethnic signifiers like Hispanic and Latina/o/x have been used to refer to peoples of Latin American descent in the United States in official, academic, and everyday discourse from the late 20^th century. While Latino and Chicano have been employed as all-encompassing, gender-neutral terms in line with the grammatical gender rules for Spanish, other terms are used to specifically address women of Latin American and Mexican descent (Latina, Chicana). The words Latinx and Latine are also employed to incorporate identities that transcend the male/female gender binary (Del Río-González, 2021). For the sake of consistency, this piece uses the pan-ethnic term Hispanic, as this was the term most often used by participants in the focus groups.

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported by funds made available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Center for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support, under [CDC-RFA-OT21-2103] National Initiative to Address COVID-19 Health Disparities Among Populations at High-Risk and Underserved, Including Racial and Ethnic Minority, [1 NH75OT000054-01-99].