Vaccine Hesitancy: A Deep-Dive into the Decision-Making Processes around Vaccination

Vaccines have become extremely safe and effective through hundreds of years of development, however, many people remain hesitant to get their vaccines to this day. This paper will first outline the history and effectiveness of vaccines and then provide original research on the current perspectives regarding getting vaccinated, finally wrapping up with a discussion. The study utilizes qualitative measures in the form of interviews to understand the decision-making processes that go into vaccination. Interview questions focused primarily on vaccines as a whole with a subset of questions dedicated to the COVID-19 vaccine specifically. A group of first-year students and faculty members from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts were interviewed (n=30). An overwhelming majority of participants were vaccinated in accordance with the college’s policy, however, a few remained unvaccinated. The study is still currently underway with the earliest observations showing that, with only a few expectations, the college students and faculty tend to feel comfortable getting vaccinated regardless of socioeconomic status. Many students, however, would choose not to get vaccinated if they did not have to as a matter of convenience. Further interviews and analysis of data will provide more conclusive elements of the decision-making process