WP22/03: COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in Aotearoa New Zealand: Are some barriers easier to overcome than others?

Working Paper 22/03

Komathi Kolandai
Barry Milne
Martin von Randow
Chris Bullen
Samantha Marsh

Surveys in 2020 evidenced a broad range of aspects (e.g. doubts about effectiveness, worries about unknown side-effects, perceptions about rushed production) associated with hesitancy towards and rejection of COVID-19 vaccines. However, the recent surge in vaccine uptake in New Zealand suggests that some barriers may have been easier to overcome than others. While only 4.6% of the New Zealand population was fully vaccinated on 1 June 2021, this increased to 75% by 31 December 2021 (Our World in Data, 2022), and as of March 2022 over 90% were fully vaccinated (Ministry of Health, 2022). This steady uptake was despite earlier surveys showing that 26% of New Zealanders were hesitant in June/July 2020 (Thaker, 2021). In May 2021, 25.3% remained hesitant, while 8% indicated that they did not intend to receive the COVID-19 vaccine (Thaker & Ganchoudhuri, 2021).

The present study aims to:

• test the logic-based hypotheses that those remaining hesitant will have a broader range of and stronger levels of doubts, worries, and concerns than those vaccinated.
• analyse the levels of concern vaccinated individuals had before receiving their vaccines, to identify emerging patterns that might suggest (1) if some aspects entailed a lower level of concern than others, and (2) if there were aspects that were overcome despite high concern.
• determine if any sociodemographic variables (e.g. gender, age, education, ethnicity) were associated with stronger levels of doubts, worries, and concerns.

Findings could inform future vaccine development (by identifying the most critical vaccine features that can affect uptake) and vaccination programmes (by identifying the most critical contextual barriers to uptake).

Question sets embedded in the ISSP Health and Health Care 2022 survey; data collection to end 30 June 2022.

International Social Survey Programme

Social Attitudes Survey New Zealand

Ministry of Health (2022). COVID-19: Vaccine data. Data and statistics about the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in New Zealand, https://www.health.govt.nz/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-data-and-statistics/covid-19-vaccine-data#uptake.

Our World in Data (2022). Coronavirus (COVID-19) Vaccinations, https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations.

Thaker J (2021). The persistence of vaccine hesitancy: COVID-19 vaccination intention in New Zealand. Journal of Health Communication 26(2), 104–111, doi:10.1080/10810730.2021.1899346.

Thaker J & Ganchoudhuri S (2021). The role of attitudes, norms, and efficacy on shifting COVID-19 vaccine intentions: A longitudinal study of COVID-19 vaccination intentions in New Zealand. Vaccines 9(10), doi:10.3390/vaccines9101132.