Section 1. The foundations of vaccination beliefs and hesitancy Hesitancy about vaccination is on a continuum. Many people who have hesitations go on to get vaccinated. Most people in New Zealand are intending to or have already been vaccinated. Vaccine hesitancy is trending downwards in New Zealand as more people get vaccinated, with most people having got a vaccination or expressing intent to do so. A small minority have declined vaccinations when offered (approximately 1–3%) according to New Zealand research done regularly for the Ministry of Health. On the surface, people who are hesitant about vaccinations in New Zealand primarily say they are worried about the safety of vaccines or the speed of how the vaccine was developed(1).
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The Workshop 2021
Underneath these expressed concerns are three main overarching drivers of hesitancy(2,3):
1.
Individual/social group influences – beliefs, attitudes and understandings of the vaccines that emerge from culture, personal experience with institutions, and information environments (see Insight: Beliefs, attitudes and understandings about vaccination can be shallow).
2.
Contextual factors – which include historical and political experiences of neglect, discrimination, lack of citizen participation, and politicisation of science and vaccination.
3.
Vaccine and vaccination-specific issues – which include characteristics of the vaccine, vaccine development and process and the accessibility of vaccinations. COVID-19 faces particular challenges because of the perceived novelty of the platform used (DNA and mRNA) and the speed of development.
