COVID-19 Morbidity, Vaccine Side Effects, and Vaccine Hesitancy among African Americans
Publication: Natural Hazards Review
Volume 23, Issue 4
Abstract
COVID-19 research conducted in the pre-vaccine era indicates strong hesitancy toward vaccination among African Americans. Recent research has found growing acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination in the general US population. This study investigated vaccination intentions in Black communities and explored behavioral mechanisms involved in vaccination decisions. It focused on individuals’ risk perception in the face of a double hazard relating to the coronavirus disease and the vaccine. Using data from a national survey of 547 African Americans in January 2021, the results demonstrate considerable lingering vaccine hesitancy among African Americans. A survey experiment applied fear appeals to raise risk perceptions of threats from (1) the coronavirus, (2) the COVID-19 vaccine, or (3) both the disease and the vaccine. The findings show null effects of the treatments on individuals’ intentions to get a vaccine. However, when incorporating efficacy beliefs about the COVID-19 vaccine, the analysis found a positive effect of perceived vaccine efficacy on vaccination intentions. The study concludes that future research and practice need to replace fear appeals with efficacy-raising regimes, and identifies strategies that can be adopted in communicating and engaging with Black communities to promote COVID-19 vaccination.
Practical Applications
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic and other prolonged crises, it is critical for public authorities to remain flexible and to time managerial and policy interventions with shifting public demands and emotions at distinct phases of the crisis cycle. In the later stages, fear appeals need to be replaced with efficacy-raising regimes to counter negative emotions and capitalize on people’s yearning for significant changes. Risk communication should empathize with the concerned individuals, avoid direct efforts to correct misinformation, highlight the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination, and tailor messages to specific subpopulations. Community engagement needs to occur on a variety of channels to reach people where they are, and should identify and mobilize trusted individuals in the target communities.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are available in a repository online in accordance with funder data retention policies. https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/D9ZAYH.
Acknowledgments
The Quick Response Research Award Program is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF Award 1635593). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF or Natural Hazards Center.
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Natural Hazards Review
Volume 23 • Issue 4 • November 2022
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© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Dec 9, 2021
Accepted: May 24, 2022
Published online: Aug 9, 2022
Published in print: Nov 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Jan 9, 2023
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