Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 7, 2025

Online Explorative Study on the Learning Uses of Virtual Reality Among Early Adopters
Published on: November 22, 2019
Anticipating hopes, fears and expectations towards COVID-19 vaccines: A qualitative interview study in seven European
Katharina T Paul1, Bettina M Zimmermann2,3, Paolo Corsico4,5
1Centre for the Study of Contemporary Solidarity (CeSCoS), Department of Political Science, University of Vienna, Austria.
Abstract:
Vaccine uptake is essential to managing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and vaccine hesitancy is a persistent concern. At the same time, both decision-makers and the general population have high hopes for COVID-19 vaccination. Drawing from qualitative interview data collected in October 2020 as part of the pan-European SolPan study, this study explores early and anticipatory expectations, hopes and fears regarding COVID-19 vaccination across seven European countries. We find that stances towards COVID-19 vaccines were shaped by personal lived experiences, but participants also aligned personal and communal interests in their considerations. Trust, particularly in expert institutions, was an important prerequisite for vaccine acceptance, but participants also expressed doubts about the rapid vaccine development process. Our findings emphasise the need to move beyond the study of factors driving vaccine hesitancy, and instead to focus on how people personally perceive vaccination in their particular social and political context.
Related Concept Videos
Vaccinations
Bias in Epidemiological Studies
Study Designs in Epidemiology
Observational studies are those where the researcher does not intervene but rather observes natural variations. They include cross-sectional, cohort, and...
Surveys
Survey Safety
Preparedness and Phobias

