Vaccine Hesitancy.

Solid Article on Vaxx hesitancy. Note that it says just blaming individuals is dumb and one should focus on public policy more:

In Australia, coverage rates for COVID-19 vaccines are 7–26% lower in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities than in the overall population (see ‘COVID-19 vaccinations by Australian state’). When discussing drivers of low vaccine uptake in Aboriginal communities last August, the minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt, argued that “some people have made choices because they’ve become fearful of adverse effects”. This framing as a ‘choice’ overlooked the supply problems and slow roll-out plaguing the country, as well as the lack of schemes (such as allowing people to get vaccinated without booking an appointment) for ensuring that vaccine services were reaching disadvantaged populations, including those living in remote regions.

It goes on to talk about us in the US. 

Similarly, in the United States, uptake of COVID-19 vaccines in Black communities was 14 percentage points lower than in white communities in the first five months of the country’s vaccine roll-out. (This gap has no

If governments fail to reach people promptly with easy-to-get vaccines and clear encouragement, other messages fill the void and people are likely to grow more worried about getting vaccinated.

w reduced to 6 percentage points for those receiving at least one dose.)

Various media reports homed in on vaccine hesitancy as the explanation. But Black scholars, community leaders and investigative journalists have pointed to important systemic issues. Among them is that an age-based roll-out does not take into account the disparate effects of race and social determinants of health. This means that some at-risk Black and Hispanic citizens — who have higher death rates from COVID-19 across all age groups — had to wait longer than did their white counterparts. Black Americans are less likely to own computers, which are easier to book vaccine appointments on than smartphones. Furthermore, many people in these communities don’t have easy access to the pharmacies that distribute the vaccines.

I couldn't agree more. I've already talked about my own attempts to get the vaxx. In the end, signing up for it via local agencies was very slow and I only got the booster because I saw a reddit post on it (and thanks to Amazon on this one). That a very certain subset of people claimed that they had gotten it easily and that everyone else should get one months before I could (despite trying) was one of the more annoying things about the internet and shows the privileged voices in there. If I were any angrier, I would have been like "well fuck you and this obviously biased process..." I wonder how many think that way and I wonder about the access (again, not easy for me at all, and I was actively trying). [1]

If governments fail to reach people promptly with easy-to-get vaccines and clear encouragement, other messages fill the void and people are likely to grow more worried about getting vaccinated.

Also:

Larmina, a refugee from Afghanistan, now lives in Perth, which until recently had no community transmission of COVID-19. Even if she’d wanted to, Larmina would have struggled to book a vaccine appointment, because all the information about how to do so was in English, not Persian. If the government had provided trustworthy vaccine information in Persian, Larmina hadn’t seen it. Instead, she’d been reading alarming stories about COVID-19 vaccines on social media and in WhatsApp group chats with her family. 

fair point. I also wonder if the change from 2 to 3 is getting people all riled up and increasing hesitancy. I can see if you think science is some solid thing, but we moved from 2->3 because of increased data. 

In 2013, Sweden’s Public Health Agency collaborated with WHO experts, a social scientist with specific cultural expertise, and local community leaders to address the low uptake of measles vaccines in Somali migrant communities. Through in-depth interviews and multiple consultations, the team established that parents were worried about perceived dangers of the measles–mumps–rubella (MMR) vaccine, and that health workers were not equipped to deal with their concerns. Those findings led to a suite of interventions, thought to be at least partly responsible for increasing MMR coverage — such as training members of the community to become advocates of vaccination for their friends and family, educational videos for local community members, educational opportunities for health workers, and so on9.

And, again, you need someone in the community to talk to people. That matters the most. That and if the elites in your country have wasted all their trust with the people (mainly grifting). Well, then, you'll lose in the long term:

A survey conducted in 19 countries in 2020 before the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines found a strong link between people’s reported trust in government and their willingness to be vaccinated16. And this has been supported by various observations in the pandemic. In the United States, for example, some Republican legislators are striving to nullify COVID-19 vaccine mandates17. And unvaccinated adults are at least three times as likely to identify as Republicans than as Democrats (see go.nature.com/34y3snp). Meanwhile, in Russia, various surveys indicate low levels of trust in the government18. And only around 54% of the population have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, despite the Sputnik V vaccine being free, home-grown and moderately effective, at least against the Delta variant.

So, be safe out there and get your damn booster. 
[1] This seems to point in that direction some: "Know the needs of marginalized groups. Governments should be investing more resources in qualitative research to better understand the unique needs of culturally and linguistically diverse groups. Some groups are likely to require extra support or interventions owing to language barriers or mistrust that stems from decades of poor treatment, racism and other forms of discrimination.

Investigators must go out to the communities and engage with people in person. Since 2014, UK public-health authorities have been working with a Charedi Jewish community in London, in which MMR (first dose) vaccination coverage was just 78% in 2015. Interviews of mothers and health professionals revealed that long waits in uncomfortable waiting rooms were more of an issue than were concerns about the safety of the vaccine, and led to a much more locally tailored approach to improving coverage14."

Enjoyed it? Share it via email, facebook, twitter, or one of the buttons below (or through some other method you prefer). Thank you! As always, here's the tip jar. paypal.me/nlowhim Throw some change in there & help cover the costs of running this thing. You can use paypal or a credit card.