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. 2022 Jul 20:10:908152.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.908152. eCollection 2022.

When Lack of Trust in the Government and in Scientists Reinforces Social Inequalities in Vaccination Against COVID-19

Nathalie Bajos  1 , Alexis Spire  2 , Léna Silberzan  3 , Antoine Sireyjol  3 , Florence Jusot  4 , Laurence Meyer  5 , Jeanna-Eve Franck  3 , Josiane Warszawski  5 ; EpiCov study group
Collaborators, Affiliations

When Lack of Trust in the Government and in Scientists Reinforces Social Inequalities in Vaccination Against COVID-19

Nathalie Bajos et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Objective: To assess whether lack of trust in the government and scientists reinforces social and racial inequalities in vaccination practices.

Design: A follow-up of the EpiCov random population-based cohort survey.

Setting: In July 2021, in France.

Participants: Eighty-thousand nine hundred and seventy-one participants aged 18 years and more.

Main outcome measures: Adjusted odds ratios of COVID-19 vaccination status (received at least one dose/ intends to get vaccinated/ does not know whether to get vaccinated/refuses vaccination) were assessed using multinomial regressions to test associations with social and trust factors and to study how these two factors interacted with each other.

Results: In all, 72.2% were vaccinated at the time of the survey. The population of unvaccinated people was younger, less educated, had lower incomes, and more often belonged to racially minoritized groups, as compared to vaccinated people. Lack of trust in the government and scientists to curb the spread of the epidemic were the factors most associated with refusing to be vaccinated: OR = 8.86 (7.13 to 11.00) for the government and OR = 9.07 (7.71 to 10.07) for scientists, compared to vaccinated people. Lack of trust was more prevalent among the poorest which consequently reinforced social inequalities in vaccination. The poorest 10% who did not trust the government reached an OR of 16.2 (11.9 to 22.0) for refusing to be vaccinated compared to the richest 10% who did.

Conclusion: There is a need to develop depoliticised outreach programmes targeted at the most socially disadvantaged groups, and to design vaccination strategies conceived with people from different social and racial backgrounds to enable them to make fully informed choices.

Keywords: COVID-19; government; scientists; social inequalities; trust; vaccination.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(A) Trends over time in vaccination cumulative incidence rates by age, according to level of education. EpiCov study, 3rd wave, July 2021. (B) Trends over time in vaccination cumulative incidence rates by age, according to standard of living (in decile). EpiCov study, 3rd wave, July 2021. (C) Trends over time in vaccination cumulative incidence rates by age, according to ethno-racial status. EpiCov study, 3rd wave, July 2021.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Interaction between trust in the government (yes or no) and (i) diploma, (ii) standard of living and (iii) ethno racial status and vaccination status. Multinomial regression (ref = being vaccinated). EpiCov study, 3rd wave, July 2021.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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