Researchers leading a study into COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy say a sub-group of people they’ve dubbed the ‘wait awhiles’ – people who have put off receiving the vaccine for a mix of reasons – should be urgently reconsidering their position as Western Australia’s reopening date looms.
The Kids Research Institute Australia and The University of Western Australia researcher Dr Samantha Carlson warned those who had delayed receiving the vaccine now had barely a week to make up their minds if they wanted to be fully protected by February 5, when WA was set to reopen its borders.
“We know it takes five weeks after the first dose of Pfizer or Moderna to reach maximum immunity,” Dr Carlson said. “This is because, for people aged 12 years and older, there’s a three-week gap between getting the first and second dose, and then it takes approximately another two weeks to build up a strong immune response.
This means that in order to be protected to the best level, people will need to have had their first dose by January 1.
“It is now much easier to get a COVID-19 vaccine than what is was at the beginning of the year: people in WA can get vaccinated at mass vaccine clinics, Aboriginal Medical Services, GP clinics, and pharmacies. Bookings aren’t required at any of the mass vaccine clinics in Perth or regional WA. However, we encourage people to act now rather than wait until January 1, so they don’t get caught out by public holidays and run out of time.”
Dr Carlson – who studies community attitudes and behaviours around vaccination – is the lead author of a paper, published in the international journal Vaccine, which examines the vaccine intentions of people taking part in the CORONAVAX study and whether these intentions change following major tweaks to Australia’s vaccine program.
CORONAVAX is a collaboration between The Kids Research Institute Australia and UWA which is exploring vaccine hesitancy to understand community concerns and help inform State and Federal Government communication strategies around the vaccine rollout. The researchers have spoken to about 185 people so far, with another 250 vaccine-hesitant people waiting to be interviewed and more findings yet to be published.
The paper examines specifically whether the decision made by the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) in April 2021 to make Pfizer, rather than AstraZeneca, the preferred vaccine for adults aged under 50 (now 60 years) made a difference to people’s COVID-19 vaccine intentions.
The researchers interviewed 28 participants before and after the announcement, finding few changed their intentions as a result. They noted, however, that the concerns expressed by participants pivoted from vaccine efficacy – a primary reason for hesitancy cited before the policy change – to concerns about safety.
“This seemed to correlate with whatever was happening at the time in the media and social media,” Dr Carlson said. “At the beginning of the year the media focus was very much on vaccine efficacy and participants were telling us ‘I don’t know if one’s as effective as the other.’
“Then, as soon as the blood clotting concerns arose with AstraZeneca, their stated reasons for their position on getting a vaccine or not shifted from efficacy to safety.”
Dr Carlson said the broader study had revealed a variety of reasons behind people’s COVID vaccine hesitancy.
“We created a COVID-19 vaccine intentions model to tease apart the different categories of participants and found they fell broadly into four groups,” she said.
Those groups were:
- ‘Acceptor’: no concerns about COVID-19 vaccine safety, efficacy and access, and would accept whatever vaccine was offered
- ‘Cautious acceptor’: some concerns, would prefer a particular brand but would accept whatever was offered
- ‘Wait awhile’: wait for more data, easier access, a different vaccine brand, until they perceived the threat from COVID was greater, or until vaccines were mandatory
- ‘Refuser’: no intention to vaccinate due to concerns about safety and/or efficacy.
“Although there were only a couple in the ‘wait awhile’ category within the small group spoken to for this paper, our interviews with the wider CORONAVAX cohort tell us there are many, many more who fall into that category,” Dr Carlson said.
That means we know there are quite a few people out there who have been sitting on the decision about whether to vaccinate – whether it’s because they’re hoping for Novavax to come, waiting for easier access, waiting until they have time off or, commonly, waiting to actually feel at greater risk of getting COVID-19.
Study co-author, Associate Professor Katie Attwell of UWA and The Kids Research Institute Australia, said that with WA’s borders about to open, those who had been waiting to feel threatened by COVID-19 were now faced with an important decision.
“We know it’s coming and we’ve seen that when other states open to the east coast, it comes really quickly – the next day, even,” Dr Attwell said.
“The best way people in Western Australia can stay safe is to be fully vaccinated by February 5, however those who have decided to ‘wait awhile’ until they feel at risk won’t be fully protected if they haven’t gone for their first dose by January 1.
“Obviously any time to get the vaccine is a good time – we’re not going to discourage people from getting their first dose on January 2, February 3 or March 4 – but it’s much better to be ready for when those borders open.”
The paper, Does a major change to a COVID-19 vaccine program alter vaccine intention? A qualitative investigation, by Samantha J Carlson, Lara McKenzie, Leah Roberts, Christopher C. Blyth and Katie Attwell (DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.12.021), can be read here.
Copies of the paper are available to credentialed journalists upon request: please contact Elsevier's Newsroom at newsroom@elsevier.com or +31 20 485 2719.
About Vaccine
Vaccine is the pre-eminent journal for those interested in vaccines and vaccination. It is the official journal of The Edward Jenner Society and The Japanese Society for Vaccinology and is published by Elsevier.