Decoding COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Using Multiple Regression Analysis with Socioeconomic Values

With the growth and development of COVID-19 and its variants, reaching a level of herd immunity is critically important for national security in public health. To deal with COVID-19, the United States has implemented phased plans to distribute COVID-19 vaccines. As of November 2022, over 80% of Americans had received their first shot to guard against COVID-19, and 68.6% were considered fully vaccinated, according to the dataset provided by CDC. However, a significant number of American people still hesitate to receive a shot of the COVID-19 vaccine. This paper aims to demystify COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy by analyzing various socioeconomic characteristics among individuals and communities, including unemployment rate, age groups, median household income, and education level. A multiple regression modeling and data visualization analysis show patterns with an increasing trend of vaccine hesitancy associated with a lower median household income, a younger age group, and a lower education level, which would help policymakers to make policies accordingly to target vaccine support information and remove this hurdle to end the COVID-19 pandemic effectively.