Know What Drives Vaccine Confidence

Cultural perspectives on vaccination can vary as a result of a person’s public health stance, religious viewpoints, and the level of suspicion in mistrust of vaccination in their community.

• In the Black community, there is a longstanding distrust of medical care in the United States. A lack of access to care today, reception of subpar care, and past medical experimentation like the USPHS Syphilis Study at Tuskegee have all contributed to this distrust. Learn how the “COVID-19 vaccine faces Black communities’ centuries-long mistrust of health care” in APhA’s recent news article.
• The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the longstanding need to address barriers to health equity. CDC defines health equity as “when everyone has a fair and just opportunity to attain their highest level of health.” Several factors impact health equity: discrimination, health care access and use, occupation, educational, income, and wealth gaps, and housing. For example, people in racial and ethnic minority groups often work in essential settings, and many members of these communities live in crowded living spaces. These factors can increase a person’s likelihood to be infected with COVID-19, making it critical that these communities feel vaccine confident.

Patients may lack confidence in vaccines due to religious concerns, even though many religious groups have issued statements that clarify their beliefs and support getting vaccinated.

• Some people may express concerns about the connection between mRNA vaccines and cells derived from a fetus aborted in 1972 and transformed into the HEK293 cell line. That cell line was used in the research process that enabled the development of mRNA vaccines. Fetal cells are NOT used in the manufacturing of any COVID-19 vaccine. Catholics and others opposed to abortion can be directed to the Vatican Statement on the Morality of Using Some COVID-19 Vaccines, which states it is morally acceptable to receive COVID-19 vaccines because of the remoteness from that abortion and the grave consequences of COVID-19 infection.
• Some people may express concern about the connection between the Ad26.CoV.S vaccine from Johnson & Johnson/Janssen and cells derived from a fetus aborted in 1985 and transformed into the PER.C6 cell line. That cell line is used to produce the adenoviruses used in that vaccine. Catholics and others opposed to abortion can be directed to the Vatican Statement on the Morality of Using Some COVID-19 Vaccines, which states it is morally acceptable to receive COVID-19 vaccines because of the remoteness from that abortion and the grave consequences of COVID-19 infection.
• Some people of Jewish or Muslim faith may express concerns about components of the vaccine with porcine origins because of their opposition to pork products. Pharmaceutical components that may have porcine origin, gelatin, and lactose are not used in the manufacture of any COVID-19 vaccines. Reference the Statement from the Seminar Held by the Islamic Organization for the Use of Pork Gelatin and Porcine and Other Animal Derived Ingredients in Non-oral Medication for support of the use of porcine-derived medical products.
• Visit the Immunization Action Coalition (IAC)’s resource center for Religious Concerns for more information.

Many concerns have emerged among people who are pregnant, lactating, or contemplating pregnancy. Pregnant or lactating individuals were not included in the COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials, which is typical for most clinical trials. However, safety data have not indicated a cause for concern in the thousands of pregnant or lactating people who received one of the COVID-19 vaccines since December 2020.

• The American Society for Reproductive Medicine published an article, “COVID-19 vaccine and infertility: baseless claims and unfounded social media panic,” that details how fears about the impact of the COVID-19 vaccines on pregnancy, breastfeeding, and fertility emerged.
• Visit APhA’s Vaccine Confident webpage for more information about how to Reach Special Populations.

Patients may question what is inside the vaccine vial. Point out to them that every ingredient in a vaccine is present with the FDA’s approval. These ingredients and the entire production process are subject to thousands of quality-control checks.

• What’s in Vaccines?

Patients may feel the encouragement to receive a COVID-19 vaccine infringes on their individual liberties. Point out that individual rights go hand-in-hand with duties to neighbors around us. For example, we follow traffic rules for the common good. Being vaccinated makes it less likely that one will infect someone else, including one’s own family members.

Patients may doubt that COVID-19 is a serious disease or doubt that the COVID-19 vaccines prevent disease. Point out that COVID-19 leads to ICU admissions and that the total death count for 2020 was much higher than previous years. Each of the COVID-19 vaccines being offered has been studied in rigorous clinical trials of 40,000 volunteers each, with clear evidence that vaccination substantially reduces the likelihood of severe disease if infected.