International attitudes on COVID-19 vaccination: repeat national cross-sectional surveys across 15 countries

  1. Roberto Fernandez Crespo
  2. Manar Shafat
  3. Natalie Melas-Kyriazi
  4. Lisa Gould
  5. Sarah Jones
  6. Ana Luisa Neves
  7. Melanie S Leis
  8. Hendramoorthy Maheswaran
  9. Ara Darzi
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Abstract

Objective

To examine the general public’s views around willingness to receive COVID-19 vaccines and concerns regarding their safety.

Design

Repeat cross-sectional surveys.

Setting

Online surveys in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom

Participants

National samples of adults aged >=18 years in November 2020 and January 2021.

Main outcomes measures

The proportion of adults reporting: willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccination; concern regarding side-effects from vaccinations; concerns over contraction COVID-19, and beliefs around vaccine provision in their country. Changes between the November and January surveys are also reported.

Results

Across the 15 countries, the proportion of respondents reporting they would have the COVID-19 vaccine increased from 40.7% (range: 25.0-55.1) to 55.2% (range: 34.8-77.5), proportion reporting worried about the side-effects of vaccine decreased from 53.3% (range: 42.1-66.7) to 47.9% (range: 28.0-66.1). On the second survey, willingness to receive vaccine remained low in females (49.4%, range: 30.2-79.1), aged 18-39 years (42.1%, range: 25.9-71.7), those not working or unemployed (48.9, range: 18.8-67.0), students (45.9%, range: 22.8-70.0), and those with children at home (46.5%, range: 32.4-68.9). Concerns regarding safety of vaccine remained high in females (53.7%, range: 31.8-70.4), aged 18-39 years (50.8%, range: 28.2-60.7), aged 40-64 years (51.3%, range: 30.7-68.5), those working (50.5%, range: 26.7-65.0), those not working or unemployed (53.3, range: 35.4-73.8) and those with children at home (55.8%, range: 36.5-64.7).

Conclusion

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy decreased considerably over a relatively short time coinciding with the discovery of effective vaccines. The public remain concerned about their safety, and public health messaging will need to emphasis their safety especially amongst females, parents and younger adults.

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