JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The third, most severe COVID-19 wave in mid-2021 coincided with dual challenges of limited vaccine supply and lagging acceptance in Bangkok, Thailand. Understanding of persistent vaccine hesitancy during the “608” campaign to vaccinate the over 60 years and eight medical risk groups was needed. On-the ground surveys place further demands on resources and are scale-limited. We leveraged the high Facebook social media use in this densely populated, high-transmission region, together with the University of Maryland COVID-19 Trends and Impact Survey (UMD-CTIS) – a digital health survey conducted among daily Facebook user samples – to fill this need and inform regional vaccine roll-out policy.

Objective:

The aim of this study was to determine the most common reasons for COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Bangkok across the vaccine priority groups defined by the “608” campaign, and which sources of COVID-19 information are most trusted and therefore the most effective vehicles for persuading the hesitant.

Methods:

We analyzed 34,423 Bangkok UMD-CTIS surveys June-October 2021. UMD-CTIS demographics and vaccine uptake were consistent with population measures. Vaccine hesitancy, hesitancy reasons, and trusted information sources were compared by 608 priority groups.

Results:

The hesitant were most concerned about vaccination risk-benefits (side effects selected by 63%) over other reasons (not liking vaccines 7%, religious objections 1%) regardless of risk group or time period. Scientists and health experts were most frequently cited as trusted COVID-19 information sources (97%).

Conclusions:

These findings support Bangkok policy measures to address vaccine safety and efficacy concerns through health experts, rather than government or religious officials. Large-scale surveys enabled by existing, widespread digital networks, offer an insightful, minimal-infrastructure resource for informing region-specific health policies needs.