Covid-19 vaccination fatigue on the rise: researchers analyse measures aimed at increasing booster uptake

Medicine & Science With vaccination fatigue growing and the emergence of new coronavirus variants a possibility, health officials face a potential challenge when it comes to encouraging the public to get regular boosters to protect them against Covid-19. Against this backdrop, researchers from the Medical University of Vienna (MedUni Vienna) teamed up with colleagues from the University of Vienna and the University of Perugia in Italy to assess the factors behind the drop in people's willingness to get vaccinated, including - for the first time - among those who have already received at least one dose. Intended as specialised recommendations for the design of effective vaccination drives, the findings were published in leading journal Nature Medicine. In order to pinpoint the reasons behind the rise in Covid-19 vaccine fatigue and look into potential countermeasures, a research team headed by Tanja Stamm from the Section for Outcomes Research at MedUni Vienna conducted surveys using representative population samples in Austria and Italy. The 6,357 survey participants were presented with a range of future scenarios that included random variables such as the availability of new and adapted vaccines, different forms of communication, costs, positive incentives (e.g. rewards or vouchers), the appearance of new coronavirus variants, and legal regulations (including for vaccination certificates and compulsory vaccinations). Vaccination status makes a difference - The findings show that people's willingness to receive vaccinations is not influenced by a uniform set of factors - in contrast, these factors can be split into subgroups based primarily on current vaccination status.