Efficacy information influences intention to take COVID‐19 vaccine

Abstract

Objectives. A successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic requires achieving high levels of vaccine uptake. We tested whether directly contrasting the high efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines with the lower efficacy of the annual flu vaccine would increase intentions to take a COVID-19 vaccine. Design.A pre-registered online study of 481 participants compared four information conditions: (1) no information; (2) COVID-19 Vaccine Information Only; and COVID-19 Vaccine Information combined with flu vaccine information suggesting either (3) 60% efficacy or (4) 40% efficacy; we measured COVID-19 and flu vaccine intentions along with several other vaccine-related variables.Methods. The Prolific platform was used to recruit 481 UK participants (64% female; aged between 18 and 85 years) who had been pre-screened to have intermediate levels of vaccine hesitancy. After reading a short text (~200 words) about COVID-19 vaccines, participants were asked about their vaccination intentions.Results. Providing information about the safety and efficacy of the new COVID-19 vaccines resulted in vaccination intentions that were, on average, 0.39 standard deviations (SDs) higher than those in the no information condition; providing the same COVID vaccine efficacy information in the context of information about flu vaccine efficacy resulted in a further significant increase in vaccination intentions that were 0.68 SD higher than those in the no information condition. This positive contrast effect for the COVID-19 vaccine was not associated with reduced flu vaccine intentions.Conclusions. Vaccination intentions can be strengthened through a simple messaging intervention that utilizes context effects to increase perceived response efficacy. Statement of ContributionWhat is already known on this subject?Very high levels of COVID-19 vaccine uptake are required to attain herd immunity. Previous experience and recent surveys suggest that achieving such high levels of uptake will be challenging.Protection motivation theory predicts that high uptake requires both high threat appraisal and high coping appraisal. An important aspect of coping appraisal is response efficacy.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Knowledge, Attitudes and Perception toward COVID-19 Vaccines among Adults in Jazan Province, Saudi Arabia

“…Although robust information on vaccines safety and efficacy are available and circulating in the media, negative information still exists which can be too overwhelming for the general population to comprehend. A recent study showed that among individuals with intermediate hesitance toward COVID-19 vaccines, the intention to receive the vaccines increased after providing the right information about the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines compared to those who did not receive the same knowledge [42]. Therefore, findings from our study and others emphasize the need of enhancing the delivery of science including the safety and efficacy of vaccines to the public.…”

“…Therefore, extending the education programs for regular vaccination including flu and other vaccines for non-pandemic infectious diseases may contribute to improving the overall confidence of the public toward vaccination which is required for potential future pandemics. Furthermore, lack of information on the current COVID-19 vaccines was shown to be a major driver of vaccine hesitancy [42]. A recent study on healthcare workers showed that lack of knowledge and evidence on COVID-19 vaccines mediated the unwillingness to receive COVID-19 vaccines [43].…”

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among Ethiopian healthcare workers

“…Hence, building trust regarding the ability of the government and other concerned bodies is crucial. Thus, to increase vaccine uptake and acceptance, the Ethiopian Ministry of Health and other concerned bodies should build strategies such as organize intercultural health advocating sessions for HCWs and the community, increasing knowledge and skill of health advocators in terms of vaccine information and interpersonal communication, engage key community leaders in the information provision, engage vaccine users (HCWs and the community) in providing agreed vaccination information and make informed decisions, engage HCWs in an empathic way and design different vaccine related information communication platforms [ 32 , 33 ].…”

Priming with social benefit information of vaccination to increase acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines

“…Timely response to negative news about vaccines from health authorities and health professional is important to counteract the effects. Current approaches for addressing vaccine confidence or hesitancy tend to be educational and informational and mostly unsuccessful [21] , [33] , [34] with few exceptions [15] . Our study found a greater positive effect of prosocial priming on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among participants of low general vaccine confidence, indicating that prosocial priming can be a promising and simple strategy to help overcome vaccine hesitancy to achieve greater vaccine acceptance rates.…”