Who Influences the Public Intention to Get a COVID-19 Vaccine and What are the Public References and Concerns? A Population Survey in Vietnam.

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine acceptance is influenced by the trusted recommenders. This survey examined the public references, concerns, and trust in seven groups of recommenders regarding COVID-19 vaccine in Vietnam.

Materials And Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 1,579 participants between April 16 and July 16, 2021. Participants' references, concerns, and responses to vaccination recommendations made by government officials, employers, physicians, nurses, pharmacists, senior family members, and religious leaders were captured using a self-administered questionnaire.

Results: Rates of trust ranged from 18.5% to 89.1%. The highest rates were attributable to government (89.1%) and physicians (85.9%). Less than half of participants would accept the vaccines if pharmacists (45.5%), nurses (44.7%), employers (42.4%), senior family members (28.1%), and religious leaders (18.4%) recommended it. Only 37.6% of participants thought that vaccines were safe for them, while 57% were unsure. Most participants would wait and see how people respond to the vaccines before getting vaccinated (91.5%), preferred to receive the vaccines at public hospitals (88.6%), and were concerned about vaccine effectiveness (86.9%) and side effects (76.4%), while 61.8% were concerned about vaccine cost.

Conclusion: Focusing on the personal benefit and relying on the government, physicians, and social role models would make the vaccine advertising campaigns more effective. If annual vaccinations were needed, providing the community with affordable vaccines would be an appropriate, long-term solution to ensure vaccination coverage in low-resource countries like Vietnam. Further studies are needed to examine reasons for the public reference of vaccination centers which may help in improving their confidence in getting the vaccine, regardless of the settings.