The United States is on the verge of two potentially watershed moments in the fight against COVID-19. First, COVID-19 vaccines are being tested in clinical trials, suggesting widespread distribution as early as spring 2021. Vaccination is widely considered one of the most critical public health interventions for curbing the spread of COVID-19, which has already claimed more than 220,000 American lives. At the same time, the 2020 U.S. presidential election is likely to have a significant impact on vaccine uptake given the hyper-politicization of both the pandemic and vaccines broadly. All of this is occurring against the backdrop of heightened attention to structural racism, which has identified significant disparities in COVID-19 impacts across racial groups. The confluence of these events will have profound implications for the long-term trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., as well as for the public’s perceptions of vaccine risk and government trustworthiness. Based on data collected through a multi-wave national survey of U.S. residents, this project explores the impact of factors such as partisanship, risk perceptions related to vaccines, and other exogenous—and often unpredictable—events on intended uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine. The results of this study advances key theories of risk management, information seeking, and the policy process in the context of novel risks. The research also provides timely and usable information to public health officials about the design of equitable policies and practices for bridging the gap between vaccine availability and uptake.
In the context of COVID-19, the period between the 2020 U.S. election and the expected approval of a COVID-19 vaccine provides an opportunity to assess how exogenous events in the political and information environment shape individuals’ vaccine-related perceptions and behaviors. Using a three-wave panel survey distributed to a demographically-representative national sample of U.S. residents, this study captures changes in risk perceptions and behavioral intentions, as well as in factors such as partisanship, trust in institutions, and structural racism that may influence vaccine uptake. The first wave of data collection (T1) is immediately following the announcement of 2020 election results. Because presidential elections tend to magnify polarization while garnering enormous media attention, this timing represents a critical moment to capture initial data for the project. Subsequent survey waves are approximately February 2021 (T2) and April 2021 (T3) as vaccine development advances. This research produces findings that promote a more robust understanding of the process through which individual risk perceptions evolve across time and interact with social and political factors to influence behavior.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
