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. 2025 Feb 6;13(3):344.
doi: 10.3390/healthcare13030344.

How People in Eight European Countries Felt About the Safety, Effectiveness, and Necessity of COVID-19 Vaccination: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Kristien Coteur  1 , Marija Zafirovska  2   3 , Aleksandar Zafirovski  2   3   4 , Jelena Danilenko  5   6 , Heidrun Lingner  7   8 , Felix Bauch  9 , Christine Brütting  9 , Nicola Buono  10 , Vanja Lazic  11 , Liljana Ramasaco  12 , Vija Silina  5 , Lara-Marie Fuehner  8 , Michael Harris  13   14
Affiliations

How People in Eight European Countries Felt About the Safety, Effectiveness, and Necessity of COVID-19 Vaccination: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Kristien Coteur et al. Healthcare (Basel). .

Abstract

Background/objectives: Attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination vary globally, influenced by political and cultural factors. This research aimed to assess the views of people without a healthcare qualification in Europe on COVID-19 vaccination safety, effectiveness, and necessity as well as how well informed they felt. The secondary outcomes focused on how respondents' views were affected by demographic and context factors and included a comparison by country of the level of feeling well informed. Methods: A mixed-method cross-sectional online survey in eight European countries, using convenience sampling. Results: A total of 1008 adults completed the survey, 60% of whom were female. While only 44.1% considered the vaccines safe, 43.5% effective, and 44.9% necessary, 80.0% had been vaccinated. Four in ten adults strongly agreed that they were well informed, while over a quarter did not answer the question. Younger respondents, well-informed individuals, and German respondents were more inclined to perceive COVID-19 vaccination as both effective and necessary. Conclusions: Motivations for vaccination included perceived health and social benefits, while concerns included a preference for "natural immunity", the rapid development of the vaccine, and potential unknown long-term effects. A correlation existed between respondents feeling well informed about the different COVID-19 vaccines in their country and the likelihood of having been vaccinated.

Keywords: COVID-19; Europe; SARS-CoV-2; population; public health; vaccination refusal; vaccine hesitancy; vaccine uptake.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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