Understanding COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy

Despite most of adults in the UK undertaking a full COVID-19 vaccination programme, including the booster jab (Office for National Statistics (ONS), 2022a), there remains a significant number who continue to eschew the various opportunities to be vaccinated. As a consequence, a further 3.5 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine may be destroyed as they reach their expiration date, adding to the 4.7 million doses already wasted (National Audit Office, 2022). Having an unvaccinated population is a serious issue for any society, as there is an increased transmission risk of COVID-19 due to the higher viral load of infected, unvaccinated adults. The assumption that having widely available COVID-19 vaccination opportunities will result in a largely vaccinated population grossly underestimates the various potential barriers to uptake. Vaccination uptake is the result of a complex and highly personal decision-making process, which is influenced by many factors, some of which are context-specific and vary across time, place and different vaccines (While, 2021a).