TY - JOUR
AU - Runciman, Carin
AU - Roberts, Benjamin J.
AU - Alexander, Kate
AU - Bohler-Muller, Narnia
PY - 2025
DA - September
TI - COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and barriers to vaccination in South Africa
JO - South African Review of Sociology
DO - https://doi.org/10.1080/21528586.2025.2553922
AB - The COVID-19 pandemic created significant social, economic and health-related challenges. The rapid development of vaccines that could help curb transmission and mortality from the virus were vital. The University of Johannesburg/Human Sciences Research Council (UJ/HSRC) COVID-19 Democracy survey was established as an online cross-sectional online and telephone survey designed to provide rapid response data to inform the pandemic response. Between December 2020 and November 2021, the survey fielded questions about vaccine acceptance, hesitancy and structural barriers to vaccination. Drawing from the SAGE Vaccine Hesitancy Determinants Matrix, this article explores the intersection of contextual and individual reasons for COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. We find that young people, particularly those aged 18-24 years, were the most vaccine-hesitant. In addition, white adults exhibited more than double the odds of hesitancy than Black African adults, yet were also much more likely to be vaccinated. The article explores this seeming paradox by analysing explanations for vaccine hesitancy as well as considering structural barriers to vaccination. Explanations for vaccine hesitancy mostly related to concerns about side effects, the effectiveness of the vaccine and distrust in the vaccine and/or government. While structural barriers, such as a lack of information about where to receive a vaccination and vaccination sites being inaccessible, may have deterred those who were broadly favourable about vaccination from accessing one. Overall, our analysis illustrates the importance of understanding health crises as more than medical problems but as fundamentally social problems. It is therefore vital that social science research informs future responses to public health emergencies.
PB - Taylor and Francis
UR - https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/publications/ae145314-7e7e-4e5d-945b-e232e9405226
KW - Coronavirus (COVID-19)
KW - Immunisation and screening
ER