Researching childhood vaccine hesitancy in the wake of COVID-19

Alistair Anderson; Tom Douglass; Pru Hobson-West

doi:10.1016/j.jvacx.2024.100450

Researching childhood vaccine hesitancy in the wake of COVID-19

Vaccine X. 2024 Jan 26:16:100450. doi: 10.1016/j.jvacx.2024.100450. eCollection 2024 Jan.

Authors

Alistair Anderson¹, Tom Douglass², Pru Hobson-West^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Nottingham, NottinghamNG7 2RD, United Kingdom.
² Department of Social Work and Social Care, University of Birmingham, BirminghamB15 2TT, United Kingdom.
³ School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, University of Nottingham, LeicestershireLE12 5RD, United Kingdom.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a seismic effect on public healthcare, vaccine production, and on society. However, the pandemic has also had a methodological impact on social researchers, including those seeking to better understand vaccine hesitancy in relation to childhood vaccines. In this short communication, we describe the challenging experience of recruiting and conducting qualitative interviews with UK healthcare professionals and vaccine hesitant parents in early 2022. We also explore the way in which the context of COVID influenced our data analysis. Finally, we make recommendations for how researchers, including those using qualitative or quantitative methods, might learn from our experiences, as the complex and delicate relationship between society and vaccines continues to evolve in the wake of the pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; Childhood vaccination; Immunisation; Qualitative methods; Vaccine hesitancy.