Attitudes towards vaccination : why people are against the COVID-19 vaccine

Abstract

Living during a pandemic has a great impact on a person’s day to day routine along with their health and psychological functioning. The aim of the Health Authority is to find ways to end the pandemic as smoothly as possible, ensuring that the population remains healthy. Vaccinations have played a key role in the advancement of the medical field, however, there are a number of people who do not agree with the matter. This dissertation will focus on the reasons underlying people’s aversion to the COVID-19 vaccination, specifically. The aim of this study is to explore and understand the participants’ hesitancy towards taking this vaccination. In doing so, this dissertation aided in contributing to the medical field by identifying some of the various reasons, mainly psychological, for people refraining from taking the COVID-19 vaccine. This will help in providing a deeper understanding of these participants’ points of view, along with their experiences during this challenging period in time. Six participants were interviewed using semi-structured interviews, recruited through snowball sampling. The transcripts were analysed by using Thematic Analysis. The analysis centres around three main themes, each containing sub-themes. Findings described their doubts towards the COVID-19 vaccine as emanating from personal circumstances, social and informational matters, and also socio-cultural and political grounds. The data collected described the experiences of the participants, and their family and friends. The results concluded that the participants’ hesitancy emerged from personal health factors, and was exhibited as a form of protest against the lack of information and discrimination against those who refused the vaccine.