Table 4.
Uncertainty in Vaccine Decision-Making.
| 5C Model Construct | Construct Details | Participant Quotes |
|---|---|---|
| Low confidence in the COVID-19 vaccine |
Vaccine safety concerns: long-term side effects, exacerbating existing chronic conditions, vaccine ingredients, and more studies needed |
“My concerns are just what the long-term side effects are and how each individual would react to it”—Parent 11 |
| “My daughter, like I said, the youngest one does have underlying issues and she already has things going on with her, so I don’t want to cause any more on her”—Parent 32 | ||
| “Because like I said, the ingredient, we don’t know what’s in it, so we don’t know how it’s gonna affect our children”—Parent 17 | ||
| “Well, for me personally it’s just a matter of time, and I want to see more testing—basically more people, just more studies being done, and of course, have more research articles coming out on the vaccine overall”—Parent 3 | ||
| Vaccine efficacy concerns | “The other thing that I wanted to mention was with all the variants coming through, you know, and so that was the other concern. Is this going to be effective, still be as effective with new variants?”—Parent 20 | |
| Trust concerns: mistrust in pharmaceutical companies, regulatory agencies, public health authorities, and health care providers |
“This vaccine was developed super-fast. So, you know, I don’t have a lot of trust about that”—Parent 25 | |
| “If you’re on the J&J [Johnson & Johnson] panel, everyone’s expecting it [the vaccine] to be rolled out and in arms like next week. Who’s gonna be the one that’s like, ‘Well, I think that there might be a concern,’ so that does concern me a little bit because whistleblowing is hard enough”—Parent 15 | ||
| “There is a lot of business and tremendous politics involved in it, and that makes a common person worrisome—like OK, is the government or are the authorities really concerned about the common person’s health or is there big business involved in it and that’s why there is a lot of promotion to get the vaccine all of a sudden?”—Parent 19 | ||
| “It’s not just about public health at all or the good of the people. There’s just so many other factors involved, which, you know, unfortunately, in the area of public health, it shouldn’t be, but it is”—Parent 21 | ||
| “They [CDC] did not give us the accurate information to begin with. They said mask is not needed, but it was needed from the first day. So, I’m thinking about vaccine. They may say, no, the vaccine is not needed for younger children and when everybody goes back to normal, we may have a peak for people that are not vaccinated yet. That’s my concern”—Parent 13 | ||
| “Pfizer and Moderna had been kind of secretive; what’s in that vaccine is not really public knowledge, so that makes me suspicious. Why is it not common knowledge?”—Parent 3 | ||
| High complacency regarding COVID-19 disease risk |
Low perceived risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 | “My kids are still in distance learning … and so, I don’t think they’re at risk at this time”—Parent 36 |
| “She’ll have a higher than usual chance of getting it at college versus high school, middle school where they’re coming home, and you have some control of what they’re doing socially, so like right now, I don’t think she’s getting COVID any time before she leaves home”—Parent 15 | ||
| “As a family, we do everything wrong. We host parties. My son has a huge party. We had a huge party. We went to gather with family for the holiday. We travel. I purposely tried to get COVID, and I’m not getting it! Then I have people like my neighbor who are always home, and they have COVID. So, I just find it mind blowing, like, we are trying to get COVID! No masks, everywhere touching everything, especially my youngest with everything in his mouth, and we can’t get it, you know? [laughs] So, it’s like why the heck do we even need a vaccine?”—Parent 3 | ||
| “I don’t know if they need it. We were sick and they tested negative, all of the kids. I feel like for kids it’s a little bit … like their immune system. I don’t know if it’s—but all adults here got it and none of the kids did”—Parent 40 | ||
| COVID-19 perceived as a mild disease | “They are fine with COVID because my son, he doesn’t have, like, any chronic disease or no allergies, so I think he’s fine if he has it”—Parent 16 | |
| “Like I said, we don’t get sick very often, so I think their immune systems are pretty strong and that if they were to get it, they would have a good outcome”—Parent 37 | ||
| “We’ve seen it, I guess, with a lot of adolescents and they’re all fine—fine meaning it seems like it’s not even as bad as the flu”—Parent 15 | ||
| “Like, it is more of an inconvenience to be really honest with you, right, you know, it’s more of a like scarlet letter on your chest, right, you know what I mean, and an inconvenience in your life”—Parent 20 | ||
| “The COVID actually [is] not very harmful for the kid under 16, so for the COVID vaccine, I think like I said, I will wait maybe for one or more years”—Parent 17 | ||
| “You know, she is very young. Is it better just to get COVID, get it over with? And who knows if those antibodies last either, but they don’t, similarly, they don’t know what the vaccination is going to do. I don’t know, so we’re on the fence”—Parent 15 |