Journal article
Alistair Thorpe, A. Fagerlin, Jorie M. Butler, V. Stevens, Frank A Drews, H. Shoemaker, Marian S Riddoch, Laura D. Scherer
medRxiv, 2021
medRxiv, 2021
Semantic Scholar
DOI
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APA
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Thorpe, A., Fagerlin, A., Butler, J. M., Stevens, V., Drews, F. A., Shoemaker, H., … Scherer, L. D. (2021). Communicating about COVID-19 vaccine development and safety. MedRxiv.
Chicago/Turabian
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Thorpe, Alistair, A. Fagerlin, Jorie M. Butler, V. Stevens, Frank A Drews, H. Shoemaker, Marian S Riddoch, and Laura D. Scherer. “Communicating about COVID-19 Vaccine Development and Safety.” medRxiv (2021).
MLA
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Thorpe, Alistair, et al. “Communicating about COVID-19 Vaccine Development and Safety.” MedRxiv, 2021.
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@article{alistair2021a,
title = {Communicating about COVID-19 vaccine development and safety},
year = {2021},
journal = {medRxiv},
author = {Thorpe, Alistair and Fagerlin, A. and Butler, Jorie M. and Stevens, V. and Drews, Frank A and Shoemaker, H. and Riddoch, Marian S and Scherer, Laura D.}
}
Abstract
Purpose. Beliefs that the risks from the vaccine outweigh the risks from getting COVID-19 and concerns that the vaccine development process was rushed and lacking rigor have been identified as important drivers of hesitancy and refusal to get a COVID-19 vaccine. We tested whether messages designed to address these beliefs and concerns might promote intentions to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Method. An online survey fielded between March 8-March 23, 2021 with US Veteran (n=688) and non-Veteran (n=387) respondents. In a between-subjects experiment, respondents were randomly assigned to a control group (with no message) or to read one of two intervention messages: 1. a fact-box styled message comparing the risks of getting COVID-19 compared to the vaccine, and 2. a timeline styled message describing the development process of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. Results. Most respondents (60%) wanted a COVID-19 vaccine. However, 17% expressed hesitancy and 23% did not want to get a COVID-19 vaccine. The fact-box styled message and the timeline message did not significantly improve vaccination intentions, F(2,359)=0.91, p=.402, partial eta squared=.005, or reduce the time respondents wanted to wait before getting vaccinated, F(2,307)=0.76, p=.468, partial eta squared=.005, compared to no messages. Discussion. We did not find an impact on vaccine intention based on providing information about vaccine risks and development. Further research is needed to identify how to effectively address concerns about the risks associated with COVID-19 vaccines and the development process and to understand additional factors that influence vaccine intentions.
