Improving vaccination intent among skeptics through confidence in governments' handling of the COVID-19 pandemic

A survey of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance across 23 countries in 2022

“…Intentional or not, misrepresentation and misinformation can derail progress in COVID-19 vaccination coverage, particularly if audiences choose not to seek COVID-19 information from official sources, such as WHO, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or medical professional associations. These high-credibility sources of information face the additional challenges of pandemic fatigue 41 -or distress that may demotivate one to follow recommended protective behaviors-and, among some communities, low trust toward such institutions [5][6][7]34,51 . The characteristics of people who currently pay less attention to COVID-19 vaccine information than 1 year ago vary by country, highlighting the importance of tailored health communication techniques (Extended Data Table 3).…”

Confidence in COVID‐19 vaccines moderates the association between vaccination status and mental distress

“…Perez-Arce et al) appears to promote greater mental health, evidence also suggests that vaccine hesitancy or a seeming lack of confidence towards COVID-19 vaccines also play a hand in augmenting mental distress (Palgi et al, 2021). This outcome is part of a strand of growing research that shows how confidence in government or public health authorities (which vaccine confidence likely depends on) play a role in improving mental well-being or vaccination intent during the pandemic (Harris & Sandal, 2021;Tan et al, 2021Tan et al, , 2022. Nonetheless, while the result by Palgi et al makes us hopeful that higher degrees of confidence in vaccines can reduce mental distress, we are reminded that such credence is susceptible to misinformation and conspiracy theories, 1 widespread access to anti-vaccination propaganda on the Internet, as well as an epistemological need to ascertain truths about vaccines (Chou & Budenz, 2020;Garfin, 2020;Kate et al, 2021;Trujillo & Motta, 2021), all of which are likely to undermine the credibility of vaccines and aggravate mental distress.…”

“…appears to promote greater mental health, evidence also suggests that vaccine hesitancy or a seeming lack of confidence towards COVID‐19 vaccines also play a hand in augmenting mental distress (Palgi et al., 2021). This outcome is part of a strand of growing research that shows how confidence in government or public health authorities (which vaccine confidence likely depends on) play a role in improving mental well‐being or vaccination intent during the pandemic (Harris & Sandal, 2021; Tan et al., 2021, 2022). Nonetheless, while the result by Palgi et al.…”

A typology of vaccine hesitancies: Results from a study of community pharmacists administering COVID-19 vaccinations during the pandemic

“… 12 Anecdotally, pharmacists and health care professionals noted that the most challenging aspects of the COVID-19 mass vaccination effort had less to do with medications and more to do with public mis-understanding of science and skepticism of expert guidance. 13 , 14 …”