Enhancing COVID-19 Vaccination Awareness and Uptake in the Post-PHEIC Era: A Narrative Review of Physician-Level and System-Level Strategies

Abstract

Following the World Health Organization's declaration that the COVID-19 pandemic is no longer a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), COVID-19 remains an ongoing threat to human health and healthcare systems. Vaccination plays a crucial role in reducing the disease's incidence, mitigating its severity, and limiting transmission, contributing to long-term public health resilience. However, incomplete vaccination coverage and vaccine hesitancy exist. This narrative review investigates strategies at the system and physician levels aimed at sustaining awareness and uptake of COVID-19 vaccination in a post-PHEIC era. Through an examination of the existing literature, this review explores the effectiveness of diverse approaches utilized by healthcare systems and individual providers. These approaches address every component of the 5C model of vaccine hesitancy: confidence, complacency, constraints/convenience, calculation, and collective responsibility. Physician-level approaches include appropriate message framing, persuasive communication containing safety and personal/social benefit information, sharing of personal stories, creating a safe space for discussion, harnessing co-administration with annual influenza vaccines, and use of decision aids and visual messages. System-level approaches include messaging, mass media for health communication, on-site vaccine availability, pharmacist delivery, healthcare protocol integration, incentives, and chatbot use.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; pandemic preparedness; public health; vaccination hesitancy; vaccines.