Vaccine hesitancy among young people

Healthwatch Central Bedfordshire young volunteers wanted to undertake a short research study into vaccine hesitancy amongst the young people in the Central Bedfordshire area and to explore the reasons behind it.

With support from Healthwatch England and local providers, a short snapshot survey was created and widely distributed across Central Bedfordshire. Questions included whether young people have been offered the vaccine, if they have chosen to have the vaccine and why they felt young people were choosing not to have the vaccine. 

The main aim of the survey was to gain some insight into whether young people from Central Bedfordshire were choosing to have the vaccine, or not, and/or the reasons why they felt other young people were hesitant about having the vaccine.

29 young people took the time to share their views. 60% of these people planned to have the vaccine, and 40% said they had chosen not to have the vaccine.

Reasons for not having the vaccine included distrust in the government, concern about possible side effects, and feeling that it was not necessary for young people. To encourage more young people to take up the vaccine, respondents to the survey felt fairly strongly that young people’s opinion could be changed if they believed they would have more freedom to travel and attend events, as well as receiving two doses which would reduce the need to self-isolate.