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. 2024 Sep 11;12(9):1042. doi: 10.3390/vaccines12091042

Table 4.

Interview key quotations: Theme 3—Appraisal and action.

Themes Sub-Themes Quotations
3. Appraisal and action Vaccine hesitant – Future regret We decided, as a couple, as a family, that we would wait. We were not going to jump straight into getting basically anything stuck into our arm that hadn’t been clearly tested for some time. We were not going to be the initial guinea pigs. We saw some data that was coming out about complications, side effects, even death. And I thought, “Do you know what? I’m not prepared to put any of us in that situation.” So, now that we’re so far in and there’s a lot more data and we’ve got a really good idea of complications, and even, you know, fatal complications. I think that arguably it makes sense.—P014
Vaccine hesitant—increased risk during pregnancy And we weren’t comfortable in having the vaccine while I was pregnant, as we didn’t feel there was enough research on pregnant women and the side effects that it can have, and I’d already had Covid twice, so I didn’t think… I had enough resistance, I didn’t really have any side effects from Covid, I was really quite well during it. But the consultant sort of pushed me into getting the second vaccine… So I went and had the vaccine, and then the day later, I felt no movements—the day after my vaccine. And when I went into the hospital, they just couldn’t find the heartbeat… I just felt that the vaccine hadn’t been out long enough for me to take it especially when I’d had it twice and I didn’t feel… if I’d had really bad side effects, and that could have affected my pregnancy, I would have had the vaccine, no problem, if it was more risky for me to catch it.—W010
Protection of self, babies, and others I’m very pro-vaccine so personally I would totally encourage it if it protects you and protects your baby. I think we’re so lucky to be in a developed country where we’ve got access to vaccines. I do hear the argument of, it’s my body and it should be my choice. I totally hear that. I suppose, I just think for the greater good, not just for that person or for their baby but for everyone, the more people who are vaccinated, the less hosts there are for the virus to infect and create a new variant. So vaccines have eliminated illnesses in the past and so yes, I’m very pro-vaccine and I’d encourage any woman who is pregnant or thinking about getting pregnant, I would definitely encourage them to take it up, for sure, yes. If they feel it’s the right thing, yes.—W031
No mandatory vaccine for HCPs – autonomy I don’t think it’s right to force healthcare workers, even in maternity environments and high-risk environments, to be vaccinated. Yes, they have a right to protect the patients that they look after. You would hope it would be the minority of healthcare professionals that wouldn’t be vaccinated because I think most people working in healthcare altruistically do want the best for people and want to do the best for patients and the people they look after and there’s a sort of caring element to health care… I think to force it, I think it just felt wrong to me that it’s mandatory for you to have vaccination and I was really pleased actually when the government u-turned on that aspect of things, because we were getting a lot of people saying that it wasn’t fair, vaccination is a choice, and I think it is a choice and my view is that you do have to give healthcare workers a choice. If they don’t want to be vaccinated then I think that they have the right not to be vaccinated. But then they also have a need to protect their patients so they need to be doing regular Covid tests, they need to not be exposing patients to Covid. But to go as far as to say that they all have to be vaccinated I thought was too far.—H009
Imposing mandatory vaccines for HCPs – duty of care I feel like the need to not put your patients at risk takes priority over… I feel like the argument against it is that people have a right to refuse to take a vaccine. And I absolutely agree that that’s the case, that people should have a choice about whether to take it or not. But then, to say that people’s right to exercise that choice means that they should continue to be able to work in an environment where that might put other people at risk, is a kind of secondary question and a separate question. So to the same extent that—there’s not really a good analogy for it really, is there? But basically I think that it’s fine if someone doesn’t want to take the vaccine, but then they also shouldn’t be working in an environment where that would put people at much more risk. And I don’t know then that means that it’s the responsibility of their employer to move them to a role where they wouldn’t then be exposed to patients. That might be a kind of compromise. But I think definitely frontline staff should be vaccinated.—P010

Key: W = women, P = partner, H = HCP, and M = policy maker.