Ending the Pandemic: How Behavioural Science Can Help Optimize Global COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake

Vallis, Michael; Bacon, Simon; Corace, Kim; Joyal-Desmarais, Keven; Sheinfeld Gorin, Sherri; Paduano, Stefania; Presseau, Justin; Rash, Joshua; Mengistu Yohannes, Abebaw; Lavoie, Kim

doi:10.3390/vaccines10010007

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Ending the Pandemic: How Behavioural Science Can Help Optimize Global COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake

Michael Vallis

^1,*

Simon Bacon

^2,3

Kim Corace

^4,5,

Keven Joyal-Desmarais

^2,3

Sherri Sheinfeld Gorin

⁶,

Stefania Paduano

⁷

Justin Presseau

^8,9,

Joshua Rash

¹⁰

Abebaw Mengistu Yohannes

¹¹ and

Kim Lavoie

^3,12

Department of Family Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3J 3T4, Canada

Department of Health, Kinesiology and Applied Physiology, Concordia University, Montreal, QC H4B 1R6, Canada

Montreal Behavioural Medicine Centre, Montreal, QC H4J 1C5, Canada

⁴

Department of Psychiatry, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1Z 7K4, Canada

⁵

Institute of Mental Health Research, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1Z 7K4, Canada

⁶

Department of Family Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbour, MI 48104, USA

⁷

Department of Biomedical, Metabolic and Neural Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, 41125 Modena, Italy

⁸

Clinical Epidemiology, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K1Y 4E9, Canada

⁹

School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1G 5Z3, Canada

¹⁰

Department of Psychology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NF A1B 3X9, Canada

¹¹

Department of Physical Therapy, Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, CA 91720, USA

¹²

Department of Psychology, University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM), Montreal, QC H2X 3P2, Canada

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Academic Editor: Vincenzo Baldo

Vaccines 2022, 10(1), 7; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10010007

Received: 12 November 2021 / Revised: 14 December 2021 / Accepted: 20 December 2021 / Published: 22 December 2021

(This article belongs to the Special Issue COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance and Uptake: Insights from Behavioural and Social Sciences)

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Abstract

Governments, public health officials and pharmaceutical companies have all mobilized resources to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Lockdowns, social distancing, and personal protective behaviours have been helpful but have shut down economies and disrupted normal activities. Vaccinations protect populations from COVID-19 and allow a return to pre-pandemic ways of living. However, vaccine development, distribution and promotion have not been sufficient to ensure maximum vaccine uptake. Vaccination is an individual choice and requires acceptance of the need to be vaccinated in light of any risks. This paper presents a behavioural sciences framework to promote vaccine acceptance by addressing the complex and ever evolving landscape of COVID-19. Effective promotion of vaccine uptake requires understanding the context-specific barriers to acceptance. We present the AACTT framework (Action, Actor, Context, Target, Time) to identify the action needed to be taken, the person needed to act, the context for the action, as well as the target of the action within a timeframe. Once identified a model for identifying and overcoming barriers, called COM-B (Capability, Opportunity and Motivation lead to Behaviour), is presented. This analysis identifies issues associated with capability, opportunity and motivation to act. These frameworks can be used to facilitate action that is fluid and involves policy makers, organisational leaders as well as citizens and families. View Full-Text

Keywords: COVID-19; vaccine acceptance; behavioural science; vaccine hesitancy; behaviour change

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

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Vallis, M.; Bacon, S.; Corace, K.; Joyal-Desmarais, K.; Sheinfeld Gorin, S.; Paduano, S.; Presseau, J.; Rash, J.; Mengistu Yohannes, A.; Lavoie, K. Ending the Pandemic: How Behavioural Science Can Help Optimize Global COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake. Vaccines 2022, 10, 7. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10010007

AMA Style

Vallis M, Bacon S, Corace K, Joyal-Desmarais K, Sheinfeld Gorin S, Paduano S, Presseau J, Rash J, Mengistu Yohannes A, Lavoie K. Ending the Pandemic: How Behavioural Science Can Help Optimize Global COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake. Vaccines. 2022; 10(1):7. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10010007

Chicago/Turabian Style

Vallis, Michael, Simon Bacon, Kim Corace, Keven Joyal-Desmarais, Sherri Sheinfeld Gorin, Stefania Paduano, Justin Presseau, Joshua Rash, Abebaw Mengistu Yohannes, and Kim Lavoie. 2022. "Ending the Pandemic: How Behavioural Science Can Help Optimize Global COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake" Vaccines 10, no. 1: 7. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10010007

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