Mass Immunization and Vaccine Hesitancy in Children and Their Families: A Long and Winding Road Ahead to Address without a Second Thought

Conservative Media Use and Childhood COVID-19 Vaccine Information: A Test of the Contradictory Health Information Processing Model

The Contradictory Health Information Processing (CHIP) model explains individuals' processing of conflicting health claims. Tests of the model, while highly supportive, have been experimental and have relied upon low-familiar topics. Accordingly, a survey of parents with a child aged <12 years (N = 510) was conducted to test the application of the CHIP model to the controversial issue of childhood COVID-19 vaccination; such a vaccine had not yet been approved for this age group at the time of the survey. As hypothesized, reliance upon conservative news was associated with the perception that media information contradicted official guidance to vaccinate children, which led to issue uncertainty. Issue uncertainty prompted negative appraisals and decision uncertainty. Specifically, decision uncertainty partially mediated the effect of issue uncertainty on negative appraisals of vaccination, which in turn aroused threat emotions. However, threat emotions did not predict information-seeking, as specified in the model. This result may have been due to respondents having already decided to vaccinate their child, or not - a reflection of the partisan nature of the topic and the extensive coverage it had received. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Hesitant or Not Hesitant? A Systematic Review on Global COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance in Different Populations

Vaccination currently appears to be the only strategy to contain the spread of COVID-19. At the same time, vaccine hesitancy (VH) could limit its efficacy and has, therefore, attracted the attention of Public Health Systems. This systematic review aimed at assessing anti-COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rates worldwide and at identifying populations more prone to vaccine hesitancy, for which specific interventions should be planned. PubMed database was searched using a purposely formulated string. One hundred out of the 9243 studies retrieved were considered pertinent and thus included in the analyses. VH rate was analyzed according to patient geographical origin, ethnicity, age, study setting, and method used for data collection; data from specific populations were separately analyzed. Overall, this study demonstrated significant differences in terms of VH in the general population and in the specific subgroups examined according to geographical, demographic factors, as well as associated comorbidities, underlining the need for purposely designed studies in specific populations from the different countries, to design targeted programs aimed at increasing awareness for confidence and complacency toward COVID-19 vaccines.