Understanding the phases of vaccine hesitancy during the COVID-19 pandemic

• Published in: Israel journal of health policy research Vol. 11; no. 1; p. 16
• Main Authors: Kumar, Dewesh, Mathur, Mansi, Kumar, Nitesh, Rana, Rishabh Kumar, Tiwary, Rahul Chandra, Raghav, Pankaja Ravi, Kumar, Amarendra, Kapoor, Neelesh, Mathur, Medha, Tanu, Tanya, Sethia, Soumitra, Lahariya, Chandrakant
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 22-03-2022; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Analysis; Confidence; Coronaviruses; COVID 19 pandemic; COVID vaccine; COVID-19; COVID-19 - prevention & control; COVID-19 Vaccines; Disease transmission; Emotional behavior; Epidemics; Health attitudes; Health literacy; Humans; Ignorance; India; Influenza; Integrative; Israel; Mortality; Pandemics; Patient Acceptance of Health Care; Phases; Population; Psychological aspects; Social networks; Spatial variations; Vaccination; Vaccination Hesitancy; Vaccine eagerness; Vaccine hesitancy; Vaccine ignorance; Vaccine resistance; Vaccines; Israel; India; United States > US; Vaccine apathy; Vaccine ignorance; Vaccine eagerness; Vaccine hesitancy; COVID 19 pandemic; Vaccine confidence; COVID vaccine; Vaccine complacency; Vaccine resistance
• ISSN: 2045-4015; 2045-4015
• DOI: 10.1186/s13584-022-00527-8

Vaccine hesitancy is an important feature of every vaccination and COVID-19 vaccination is not an exception. During the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine hesitancy has exhibited different phases and has shown both temporal and spatial variation in these phases. This has likely arisen due to varied socio-behavioural characteristics of humans and their response towards COVID 19 pandemic and its vaccination strategies. This commentary highlights that there are multiple phases of vaccine hesitancy: Vaccine Eagerness, Vaccine Ignorance, Vaccine Resistance, Vaccine Confidence, Vaccine Complacency and Vaccine Apathy. Though the phases seem to be sequential, they may co-exist at the same time in different regions and at different times in the same region. This may be attributed to several factors influencing the phases of vaccine hesitancy. The complexities of the societal reactions need to be understood in full to be addressed better. There is a dire need of different strategies of communication to deal with the various nuances of all of the phases. To address of vaccine hesitancy, an understanding of the societal reactions leading to various phases of vaccine hesitancy is of utmost importance.