Through our interviews we heard that the development and approval of the COVID-19 felt “too quick”.This caused hesitancy, distrust, and delay, particularly early on among Black clients, who recalled priorstudies with a racist history.
Other reasons given in our qualitative interviews for initial mistrust and delayed vaccine adoption included misinformation from leadership, unclear messaging, and lack of diversity in messaging.
Also, the initial lack of clear messaging that the vaccine didn’t equate to complete prevention causeddisappointment and frustration among vaccinated clients we spoke to that became infected withCOVID-19.
Conversations with trusted and knowledgeable co-workers, healthcare providers, friends or family, inaddition to the passage of time and seeing others get vaccinated, helped to assuage fears and mistrust.In our interviews, people remarked at how quickly the COVID-19 vaccine was discovered and deployed, amarked difference from the 41 year wait, and counting, for a vaccine for HIV. Though, we also heardoptimism that the COVID-19 vaccine technology may allow for advancements in an HIV vaccine.
