Overcoming COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy: A United States-United Kingdom Comparison
Achieving a high overall vaccination rate is crucial for overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic. To prevent widening inequalities, it is also important to increase vaccination rates among the diverse populations that are most gravely affected by the pandemic. Governmental, healthcare, and policy groups need data to guide their strategic vaccination campaigns. This policy brief presents insights from data collected shortly before vaccines were formally approved. Our analysis helps to understand the factors that influence the willingness to be vaccinated and informs strategies to reach vaccine hesitant populations.
Overall, our findings on vaccine willingness and trends around race and gender are broadly in line with findings of other surveys conducted after the approval of COVID-19 vaccines in the United States and the United Kingdom. However, our study provides more detailed insights into the socioeconomic factors and information seeking behaviors associated with the willingness to get the COVID-19 vaccine. It also examines in more depth the challenges faced by government, health experts, and media, to communicate reliable information about the pandemic, and suggests strategies to overcome them.
Research Team: Bianca C. Reisdorf (University of North Carolina at Charlotte); Grant Blank (University of Oxford); Shelia R. Cotten (Clemson University); Young Anna Argyris (Michigan State University); Craig T. Robertson (University of Oxford); Megan Knittel (Michigan State University); Johannes M. Bauer (Michigan State University)
