Abstract:
When vaccination depends on injection, it is plausible that the blood-injection-injury cluster of fears may contribute to hesitancy. Our primary aim was to estimate in the UK adult population the proportion of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy explained by blood-injection-injury fears. Across the adult population, blood-injection-injury fears may explain approximately 10% of cases of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Addressing such fears will likely improve the effectiveness of vaccination programmes.
Citation:
Freeman, D., Lambe, S., Yu, L.-M., Freeman, J., Chadwick, A., Vaccari, C., Waite, F., Rosebrock, L., Petit, A., Vanderslott, S., Lewandowsky, S., Larkin, M., Innocenti, S., McShane, H., Pollard, A. J., & Loe, B. S. (2021), 'Injection fears and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy', Psychological Medicine, Vol. 53, Issue 4, pp. 1185–1195, Cambridge University Press (CUP), https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291721002609