To vax or not to vax: Predictors of anti-vax attitudes and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy prior to widespread vaccine availability
Genre
Journal articleDate
2022-02-15Author
Roberts, Hannah A.Clark, D. Angus
Kalina, Claire
Sherman, Carter
Brislin, Sarah
Heitzeg, Mary M.
Hicks, Brian M.
Department
Psychology and NeuroscienceSubject
COVID 19Vaccines
Psychological attitudes
Social media
Vaccination and immunization
Pandemics
Educational attainment
MMR vaccine
Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12613/7562Metadata
Show full item recordDOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264019Abstract
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is a highly contagious disease responsible for millions of deaths worldwide. Effective vaccines against COVID-19 are now available, however, an extreme form of vaccine hesitancy known as anti-vax attitudes challenge vaccine acceptance and distribution efforts. To understand these anti-vax attitudes and their associated psychological characteristics, we examined several predictors of vaccine hesitancy for COVID-19 and anti-vax attitudes generally. We surveyed 1004 adults (M = 47.0 years, SD = 17.1 years, range 18–98 years) in September-October 2020 across the United States (51% female, 49% male; 76.5% White, 23.5% non-White), prior to widespread availability of the COVID-19 vaccines. Attitudes toward vaccinations were influenced by a variety of factors, especially political attitudes. We should therefore anticipate and attempt to mitigate these challenges to achieving widespread vaccination to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and other communicable diseases.Citation
Roberts HA, Clark DA, Kalina C, Sherman C, Brislin S, Heitzeg MM, et al. (2022) To vax or not to vax: Predictors of anti-vax attitudes and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy prior to widespread vaccine availability. PLoS ONE 17(2): e0264019. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264019Citation to related work
Public Library of ScienceHas part
PLoS ONE, Vol. 17, No. 2ADA compliance
For Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accommodation, including help with reading this content, please contact scholarshare@temple.eduScopus Count
Collections
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Attribution CC BY
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Protection of Hamsters Challenged with SARS-CoV-2 after Two Doses of MVC-COV1901 Vaccine Followed by a Single Intranasal Booster with Nanoemulsion Adjuvanted S-2P VaccineIntramuscular vaccines have greatly reduced hospitalization and death due to severe COVID-19. However, most countries are experiencing a resurgence of infection driven predominantly by the Delta and Omicron variants of SARS-CoV-2. In response, booster dosing of COVID-19 vaccines has been implemented in many countries to address waning immunity and reduced protection against the variants. However, intramuscular boosting fails to elicit mucosal immunity and therefore does not solve the problem of persistent viral carriage and transmission, even in patients protected from severe disease. In this study, two doses of stabilized prefusion SARS-CoV-2 spike (S-2P)-based intramuscular vaccine adjuvanted with Alum/CpG1018, MVC-COV1901, were used as a primary vaccination series, followed by an intranasal booster vaccination with nanoemulsion (NE01)-adjuvanted S-2P vaccine in a hamster model to demonstrate immunogenicity and protection from viral challenge. Here we report that this vaccination regimen resulted not only in the induction of robust immunity and protection against weight loss and lung pathology following challenge with SARS-CoV-2, but also led to increased viral clearance from both upper and lower respiratory tracts. Our findings showed that intramuscular MVC-COV1901 vaccine followed by a booster with intranasal NE01-adjuvanted vaccine promotes protective immunity against both viral infection and disease, suggesting that this immunization protocol may offer a solution in addressing a significant, unmet medical need for both the COVID-19 and future pandemics.
-
Mandatory School Vaccination Policies: Highlighting or Equalizing Racial and Socioeconomic Disparities in School Children? Barriers, attitudes, and behaviors towards fulfilling requirementsWith the rise of vaccine preventable illness in the US, the importance of timely vaccinations in children remains a priority. Mandatory school vaccination requirements are effective because they are generally accepted by the public, they allow schools and immunization programs to share resources, and they serve as a safety net to ensure all school children are immunized appropriately regardless of race, socioeconomic status (SES), or access to medical care2. However, it has repeatedly been shown that low-income, urban minority children have higher rates of underimmunization11-13, 15,16. The city of Philadelphia has a disproportionately large number of undervaccinated students compared to the rest of the state36. Philadelphia also has the highest poverty rate in the 10 largest cities of the US, and the majority of those living in poverty are minorities37. Given that the majority of Philadelphia students attend Philadelphia public schools, and of those students, greater than 75% are minorities, the disparity follows established trends39. Understanding the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of guardians of students in the School District of Philadelphia regarding mandatory immunization requirements and their barriers to fulfilling mandatory requirements can help facilitate future compliance. Ultimately, this information can reduce the number of undervaccinated students in the city and bridge this gap dividing students along racial and SES lines.
-
BCG vaccination policy and preventive chloroquine usage: do they have an impact on COVID-19 pandemic?Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a severe acute respiratory syndrome caused by Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In the light of its rapid global spreading, on 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization has declared it a pandemic. Interestingly, the global spreading of the disease is not uniform, but has so far left some countries relatively less affected. The reason(s) for this anomalous behavior are not fully understood, but distinct hypotheses have been proposed. Here we discuss the plausibility of two of them: the universal vaccination with Bacillus Calmette–Guerin (BCG) and the widespread use of the antimalarial drug chloroquine (CQ). Both have been amply discussed in the recent literature with positive and negative conclusions: we felt that a comprehensive presentation of the data available on them would be useful. The analysis of data for countries with over 1000 reported COVID-19 cases has shown that the incidence and mortality were higher in countries in which BCG vaccination is either absent or has been discontinued, as compared with the countries with universal vaccination. We have performed a similar analysis of the data available for CQ, a widely used drug in the African continent and in other countries in which malaria is endemic; we discuss it here because CQ has been used as the drug to treat COVID-19 patients. Several African countries no longer recommend it officially for the fight against malaria, due to the development of resistance to Plasmodium, but its use across the continent is still diffuse. Taken together, the data in the literature have led to the suggestion of a possible inverse correlation between BCG immunization and COVID-19 disease incidence and severity.
