Centre de recherche du CHU de Québec-Université Laval, Québec, Québec, Canada.
Institut national de santé publique du Québec, Québec, Québec, Canada.
PLoS One. 2024 Feb 15;19(2):e0293643. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0293643. eCollection 2024.
In Quebec (Canada), the roll-out of the vaccination started slowly in December 2020 due to limited vaccine supply. While the first and second doses were well-accepted among adults and vaccine uptake was above 90%, in late 2021 and 2022, vaccine acceptance decreased for children vaccination and receipt of a 3rd or a 4th dose. In the autumn of 2022, four focus groups were conducted with vaccine-hesitant parents of children aged 0-4 and adults who expressed little intention to receive a booster dose. The objective of this study was to gather participants' perspectives on vaccination in general, on the COVID-19 vaccination campaign and the information available, and to gain insights into the underlying reasons for their low intention of either having their child(ren) vaccinated, or receiving an additional dose of vaccine. A total of 35 participants took part in the focus groups. While participants expressed a certain level of trust and confidence in public health and government authorities regarding pandemic management and the vaccination campaign, they were also concerned that transparent information was lacking to support an informed decision on booster doses and children's vaccination. Many participants felt adequately protected against the infection during the focus groups, citing a lack of perceived benefits as the primary reason for refusing a booster dose. Parents who refused to administer the COVID-19 vaccine to their young children felt that the vaccine was not useful for children and were concerned about potential side effects. The majority reported that their opinions regarding other recommended vaccines had not changed since the beginning of the pandemic. While these results are reassuring, our findings highlight the importance of transparency in public health communications about vaccines to increase confidence and to develop strategies to address vaccine fatigue and complacency toward COVID-19 vaccines.
在加拿大魁北克省，由于疫苗供应有限，疫苗接种工作于 2020 年 12 月缓慢展开。尽管成年人对接种第一剂和第二剂疫苗的接受程度较高，疫苗接种率超过 90%，但在 2021 年末和 2022 年，儿童疫苗接种和接种第三剂或第四剂疫苗的意愿下降。2022 年秋季，对 4 组对儿童（0-4 岁）疫苗犹豫不决的父母和表示接种加强针意愿较低的成年人进行了焦点小组讨论。本研究的目的是收集参与者对一般疫苗接种、COVID-19 疫苗接种运动和现有信息的看法，并深入了解他们对接种疫苗的低意愿的潜在原因，无论是为他们的孩子接种疫苗，还是接种额外剂量的疫苗。共有 35 名参与者参加了焦点小组。尽管参与者对公共卫生和政府当局在大流行管理和疫苗接种运动方面表示出一定程度的信任和信心，但他们也担心缺乏透明信息来支持关于加强针和儿童接种疫苗的知情决策。许多参与者在焦点小组中表示，他们在感染方面得到了充分的保护，他们拒绝接种加强针的主要原因是认为没有感知到益处。拒绝为年幼子女接种 COVID-19 疫苗的父母认为疫苗对儿童没有用，并担心潜在的副作用。大多数人报告说，自大流行开始以来，他们对其他推荐疫苗的看法没有改变。虽然这些结果令人安心，但我们的研究结果强调了在公共卫生疫苗接种方面进行透明沟通的重要性，以提高信心，并制定策略来解决疫苗疲劳和对 COVID-19 疫苗的自满情绪。
