Vaccine Confidence in NYC: Thematic Analysis of Community Stories

The vaccine community has produced extensive evidence on vaccine hesitancy, but research to understand the factors that affect public trust in vaccines and vaccine confidence among Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) remains limited. To enrich extant literature, we present themes from 332 stories collected from predominantly BIPOC communities in New York City that explored motivators for vaccination during the COVID-19 pandemic. Stories were collected by trained community health workers from December 2021 to June 2022. The most frequently reported motivators to getting vaccinated against COVID-19 were related to preventing sickness and death from COVID-19 infection, for oneself and for others. Information from medical professionals, the news and social media, and community-based organizations contributed to decision-making about vaccines. Findings point to a strong sense of social solidarity, with the desire to protect and positively influence others, including friends, family, and the community at large, as salient motivators to vaccination. Accessible information through trusted messengers played a key role in decisions to get vaccinated. To better represent communities of color in literature, we call for more research on vaccine confidence and motivators for vaccination in BIPOC and other communities.