The shot, the message, and the messenger: COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in Latin America
Sarah Z. Daly and John Marshall, Assistant Professors of Political Science, along with Political Science PhD students Pablo Argote, Elena Barham, Julian E. Gerez, and Oscar Pocasangre, published an article in Nature Partner Journals.
Herd immunity by mass vaccination offers the potential to substantially limit the continuing spread of COVID-19, but high levels ofvaccine hesitancy threaten this goal. In a cross-country analysis of vaccine hesitant respondents across Latin America in January2021, we experimentally tested howfive features of mass vaccination campaigns—the vaccine’s producer, efficacy, endorser,distributor, and current population uptake rate—shifted willingness to take a COVID-19 vaccine. Wefind that citizens preferredWestern-produced vaccines, but were highly influenced by factual information about vaccine efficacy. Vaccine hesitant individualswere more responsive to vaccine messengers with medical expertise than political, religious, or media elite endorsements. Citizentrust in foreign governments, domestic leaders, and state institutions moderated the effects of the campaign features on vaccineacceptance. Thesefindings can help inform the design of unfolding mass inoculation campaigns.