The World Health Organization has identified vaccine hesitancy as a top health concern. Emerging research shows that those who are hesitant may still get vaccinated; however, little is known about those who say they are hesitant but still get vaccinated. Most people have high trust in several sources of COVID-19 information, and trust in certain information sources such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and health care providers was associated with being vaccinated. This study explored trusted information sources among hesitant adopters in the United States with a survey respondents completed while waiting after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine dose. The study included (n = 867) respondents. The majority of respondents were female (60.21%); were between the ages of 18 and 44 years old (71.97%); and were diverse, with most identifying as White (44.54%) or Hispanic/Latinx (32.55%). Hesitant adopters reported multiple trusted sources of COVID-19 vaccine information, which can be grouped into four emergent subthemes: (1) Health care/Medical science, (2) Personal relationships, (3) News and social media, and (4) Individual/Myself. Some respondents expressed a distrust of all sources of COVID-19 vaccine information, despite receiving the vaccine, describing a lack of trust in traditional sources of information such as the mainstream media or government. This study contributes to the literature by documenting trusted sources of COVID-19 vaccine information among hesitant adopters in the United States. Findings provide important insights about respondents’ trusted sources of COVID-19 vaccine information that can inform future public health messaging campaigns intended to increase vaccine uptake among hesitant adopters.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the health care system, resulting in decreased health care utilization. During the pandemic, some patients chose to postpone clinic visits or avoid them altogether while health care providers concurrently scaled back their services. As a result, health care has shifted to a greater reliance on telehealth and virtual care. This study uses a qualitative descriptive design, focused on providing summaries of participant experiences of health care and telehealth utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic. Three primary themes emerged during analysis: delayed health care, avoidance of care, and experiences of telehealth. Sub-themes of delayed health care included care delays and scheduling difficulties. Participants reported avoidance of health care due to fear of COVID-19 infection, as well as general changes to care-seeking behaviors. Participants also reported positive experiences with telehealth, with some respondents noting limitations of telehealth systems, such as limitations on procedures and patient-centered monitoring of chronic illness. Our findings support studies that have found both health care delays and changes in health care utilization patterns during the pandemic. Most importantly, this study expands the literature concerning links between fear of COVID-19 and altered care-seeking behaviors, which is the first study to do so focusing on these concerns in the participants’ own words. Finally, while telehealth is promising in preserving continuity of care during pandemics, long-term integration into the health care system is not without challenges, and this study provides insights into how patients experienced telehealth during COVID-19 in their own words. Data collection, survey design, and research priorities for this study were based on input from ongoing community partnerships.

The literature regarding vaccine hesitancy is limited to specific vaccines rather than general vaccine hesitancy. No studies have examined the relationship of general vaccine hesitancy to healthcare access and experiences of racial discrimination. This study fills gaps by examining: (1) socio-demographic factors; (2) associations between healthcare access; and (3) experiences with racial discrimination and general vaccine hesitancy. Survey data were obtained from 2022 US adults from 7 September to 3 October 2021. Racial and ethnic minority populations were oversampled. Age, gender, race, and education were predictors of vaccine hesitancy. Asian respondents had less than two-thirds the odds of being vaccine hesitant. Healthcare access was associated with vaccine hesitancy. Not having health insurance coverage, not having a primary care provider, and not seeing a provider for a routine check-up in the past two years were associated with higher vaccine hesitancy. For every one-point increase in racial discrimination score (0–45), the odds of being more vaccine hesitant increased by a factor of 1.03. The findings demonstrate that policy, systems, and environmental factors are critical to addressing vaccine hesitancy. Given the associations between vaccine hesitancy and racial discrimination and healthcare access, more attention should be given to inequities in the healthcare systems in order to address vaccine hesitancy.

COVID-19 vaccine coverage remains low for US children, especially among those living in rural areas and the Southern/Southeastern US. As of 12 September 2023, the CDC recommended bivalent booster doses for everyone 6 months and older. Emerging research has shown an individual may be vaccine hesitant and also choose to receive a vaccine for themselves or their child(ren); however, little is known regarding how hesitant adopters evaluate COVID-19 booster vaccinations. We used an exploratory qualitative descriptive study design and conducted individual interviews with COVID-19 vaccine-hesitant adopter parents (n = 20) to explore COVID-19 parental intentions to have children receive COVID-19 boosters. Three primary themes emerged during the analysis: risk, confidence, and intent, with risk assessments from COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccine confidence often related to an individual parent’s intent to vaccinate. We also found links among individuals with persistent concerns about the COVID-19 vaccine and low COVID-19 vaccine confidence with conditional and/or low/no intent and refusal to receive recommended boosters for children. Our findings suggest that healthcare providers and public health officials should continue making strong recommendations for vaccines, continue to address parental concerns, and provide strong evidence for vaccine safety and efficacy even among the vaccinated.

Few studies have investigated the relationship between influenza vaccination and health care access. Furthermore, despite the well-documented disparities in vaccine coverage for communities of color, few studies have examined how experiences of discrimination may influence vaccine uptake. To fill this gap in the literature, this study examined associations between 5-year influenza vaccination rates and sociodemographic characteristics, health care access, and racial discrimination. Age, race/ethnicity, education, health care coverage, primary care provider, no medical care due to cost, and routine doctor checkups were significant correlates of 5-year influenza vaccination. In contrast to previous studies, discrimination scores were not a significant correlate of regular influenza vaccination. Respondents who reported forgoing care due to cost were less likely to report vaccination every year out of the last 5 years compared to all of the less frequent categories combined, demonstrating a more complex association between sometimes not being able to afford medical care and influenza vaccination. Future research should examine the relationship between influenza vaccination uptake, racial discrimination, and forgone care due to cost to enhance resources and messaging for influenza vaccination uptake.