This presentation examines perception of public distrust, misinformation, and vaccine hesitancy pre- and post- COVID-19 vaccine rollout. Using qualitative methods, we found that the traditional VAX scale framework for understanding vaccine hesitancy was inadequate when describing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. We identify two additional categories for vaccine resistance in this context: personal freedom and COVID-19 denial. We also developed a taxonomy of the range of misinformation being used as justification for not receiving the vaccine.
Tara Zimmerman is an NSF Computing Innovations Fellow funded through the National Science Foundation. She is working with Ken Fleischmann on research projects funded by NSF and Good Systems.
Part of the Good Systems Postdoc Research Presentation Series hosted twice monthly in spring 2022. Learn more and register.