Articlegold2022

COVID-19 vaccination acceptability and experiences among people who inject drugs in San Diego County

Chad J. Valasek · Samantha A. Streuli · Heather A. Pines · María Luisa Mittal · Steffanie A. Strathdee · Carlos F. Vera +2 more

21 citations0/0 files storedPreventive Medicine Reports

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Vaccine Coverage and Hesitancy SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research HIV, Drug Use, Sexual Risk

Abstract

Background: People who inject drugs (PWID) face increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 acquisition and severe disease, yet COVID-19 vaccine uptake has been suboptimal. To inform vaccination interventions tailored for the needs of this population, we explored COVID-19 vaccination acceptability and experiences among PWID in San Diego County, USA. Methods: From September-November 2021, we conducted qualitative interviews with PWID aged ≥18 years who were participating in a prospective study of infectious disease risks in San Diego. Thematic analysis of coded interview transcripts focused on identifying barriers and facilitators to COVID-19 vaccination. Results: Of 28 participants, 15 reported having had ≥1 dose of COVID-19 vaccine, primarily received through community health centers, pharmacies, jails, and homeless shelters. We identified three key barriers to COVID-19 vaccination: (1) low perceived risk of COVID-19 (or belief in natural immunity), (2) institutional distrust (e.g., of pharmaceutical companies and government agencies that "rushed" vaccine development, approval, and distribution), and (3) conflicting information from news, social media, and peers. We also identified three key facilitators of vaccination, including (1) heightened personal and interpersonal safety concerns, (2) health service outreach efforts to make vaccines more accessible, and (3) tailored information delivered by trusted sources (e.g., outreach or community health workers). Conclusions: Tailored intervention strategies to increase acceptability and uptake of COVID-19 vaccination among PWID should involve efforts to increase vaccine literacy and motivation while decreasing institutional distrust and structural barriers to access.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 21 citations exist upstream.

References

2021Vaccine hesitancy in the era of COVID-19 2020Conspiracy theories as barriers to controlling the spread of COVID-19 in the U.S.2020Social media and vaccine hesitancy 2021Fighting an Infodemic: COVID-19 Fake News Dataset 2019Addressing vaccine hesitancy: Clinical guidance for primary care physicians working with parents.2020Anti-vaccine movement could undermine efforts to end coronavirus pandemic, researchers warn 2021Attitudes, current behaviours and barriers to public health measures that reduce COVID-19 transmission: A qualitative study to inform public health messaging 2021Knowledge, barriers and facilitators regarding COVID-19 vaccine and vaccination programme among the general population: A cross-sectional survey from one thousand two hundred and forty-nine participants

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.