Influence of Source Credibility on COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance and Hesitancy in Selected States of South-East Nigeria

Abstract

Vaccination remains one of the effective ways of stopping the spread of infectious diseases such as COVID-19. However, people have shown resistance and hesitancy towards these vaccines because of lack of trust in the vaccines fueled by misinformation and fake news about the vaccines as well as distrust of some sources of vaccine information. Therefore, this study investigated the influence of source credibility on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and hesitancy in selected states of South-East Nigeria. The study adopted the survey research method with questionnaire as the instrument for data collection. A sample size of 384 respondents from three states in Nigeria’s South-East was used. Findings showed that social media and health practitioners were mostly used in sourcing information on the vaccines. Also, the respondents had a positive attitude towards the vaccines. The social media, traditional media, blogs, health practitioners, family and friends, WHO, and pharmaceutical companies were considered as credible sources of vaccine information, while opinion leaders, religious leaders, and NCDC were regarded as non-credible sources. Similarly, all the sources perceived as credible by the public influenced the acceptance of vaccination while those perceived as less credible boosted hesitancy. Based on the findings, it was recommended, inter alia, that vaccine messaging campaigns should be shared more through the social media and health practitioners; social media platforms should be more active and transparent in fact-checking misinformation on their sites; government and mass media should leverage credible sources in disseminating accurate COVID-19 vaccine information using the 6-point guideline of the CERC Model.