COVID-19 and vaccine hesitancy: A longitudinal study

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 16; no. 4; p. e0250123
• Main Authors: Fridman, Ariel, Gershon, Rachel, Gneezy, Ayelet
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 16-04-2021; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Attitude to Health; Attitudes; Autism; Biology and Life Sciences; Colleges & universities; Concept formation; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; COVID-19 - prevention & control; COVID-19 - psychology; COVID-19 vaccines; COVID-19 Vaccines - administration & dosage; Data; Disease; Editing; Epidemics; Female; Funding; Health attitudes; Health risks; Humans; Immunization; Influenza; Intention; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Management; Medical research; Medicine and Health Sciences; Methodology; Middle Aged; Pandemics; Pandemics - prevention & control; Perceptions; Political parties; Politics; Psychological aspects; Public Health; Public opinion surveys; SARS-CoV-2 - immunology; SARS-CoV-2 - isolation & purification; Social Sciences; Sociodemographics; Supervision; Surveys; Surveys and Questionnaires; Trends; United States - epidemiology; Vaccination; Vaccination - psychology; Vaccination - statistics & numerical data; Vaccines; Validity; Visualization; United States; La Jolla California; United States > US; California
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0250123

How do attitudes toward vaccination change over the course of a public health crisis? We report results from a longitudinal survey of United States residents during six months (March 16 -August 16, 2020) of the COVID-19 pandemic. Contrary to past research suggesting that the increased salience of a disease threat should improve attitudes toward vaccines, we observed a decrease in intentions of getting a COVID-19 vaccine when one becomes available. We further found a decline in general vaccine attitudes and intentions of getting the influenza vaccine. Analyses of heterogeneity indicated that this decline is driven by participants who identify as Republicans, who showed a negative trend in vaccine attitudes and intentions, whereas Democrats remained largely stable. Consistent with research on risk perception and behavior, those with less favorable attitudes toward a COVID-19 vaccination also perceived the virus to be less threatening. We provide suggestive evidence that differential exposure to media channels and social networks could explain the observed asymmetric polarization between self-identified Democrats and Republicans.