Three Main Factors Contributed To COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Among Black Women, Study Suggests

MedPage Today (1/9, Firth) reports, “Three main factors contributed to COVID vaccine hesitancy among Black women, according to a qualitative study using interviews conducted in 2021.” Researchers found that “among the 54 Black women interviewed, three primary themes emerged: mistrust in healthcare and government due to past medical exploitation; concerns about vaccine safety and long-term effects, especially relating to reproductive health; and ‘ineffective and coercive’ communication about and promotion of the vaccine.” The investigators said, “Participants expressed deep-rooted skepticism about being treated as ‘expendable’ in medical research, fears about the rapid vaccine development process, and frustration with coercive vaccine advertisements.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.