CONTEXT: As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a global health threat, vaccine development is a top priority. However, to be effective, a vaccine must be accepted by the public. Vaccine confidence is a strong indicator on whether the public will trust and use the COVID-19 vaccine once it is developed. Low vaccine confidence can lead to persistent outbreak, setbacks in immunization, and political discord.
OBJECTIVE: Our objective is to evaluate public confidence in a potential COVID-19 vaccine in both U.S. and global populations.
STUDY DESIGN: This is a convergent design mixed-method study. A generalized linear mixed-effects model and thematic analysis were utilized.
SETTING: Online survey. Population studied: Adult internet users.
OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome measures are answers to questions exploring COVID-19 vaccine confidence, including likelihood of taking a COVID-19 vaccine. The secondary outcome measure is qualitative analysis of free-text responses to respondents’ thought about a potential COVID-19 vaccine.
RESULTS: Over 1,600 adults responded to the survey. Anticipated results are that the COVID-19 vaccine confidence is low compared to other common vaccines, such as influenza and MMR, that confidence correlates to demographic variables, and that politicization of COVID-19 is a source of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.
CONCLUSIONS: We anticipate the results will suggest that improved messaging and removal of politics from COVID-19 messaging will be important elements of improving COVID-19 vaccine confidence.
