Overcoming Vaccine Hesitancy Through Application of Reminder Systems and Vaccine Information Availability

Since 2019, the world has been dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Many efforts have been made to contain the spread and impact of the coronavirus. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) (2023), there have been over 761,401,518 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 6,886,987 COVID-19-related deaths globally to date. In addition, as of March 2023, the United States has had 102,697,566 confirmed cases and 1,117,504 deaths directly related to the virus. There have been notable differences in how individuals across various demographics experience illnesses related to COVID-19 and the outcomes of COVID-19 infections. Although the risk of developing COVID-19 symptoms varies with various factors, evidence has shown that individuals with a weakened immune system and those with diseases such as diabetes, heart conditions, and lung illnesses were at an increased risk of developing severe COVID-19 symptoms and even death (World Health Organization, 2020). Additional factors include the risk of vulnerability to the disease and the risks of complicated and serious conditions. Age seems to compromise an individual’s health and immunity. People above 60 years of age have been shown to have a higher vulnerability to COVID-19, with more negative outcomes related to infection with the virus, regardless of the existence of other risk factors (Ho et al., 2020).

Moreover, infectious diseases such as COVID-19 disease often compromise the immunity of people, which risks the development of other diseases and complications. Major efforts have been made toward the development of effective vaccines. Throughout the history of modern public health, vaccines have been critical in the prevention of a majority of infectious diseases. Vaccination against diseases aims to strengthen the body’s immunity against bacterial or viral disease agents. There are a number of vaccines that have been developed to contain the spread of the COVID-19 disease. Most of these vaccines have a proven degree of efficiency against the development of the virus. However, there has been a lot of hesitancy and resistance among the population, especially the elderly population, towards COVID-19 vaccinations. To counter vaccine hesitancy and resistance, the government mandated the vaccination of various age groups to help strengthen their frail immunity. Despite the vaccine mandates, concerns and resistance against vaccinations have continued to persist among the elderly population. As a result, this has forced the government and healthcare providers to employ other strategies, including patient education, addressing concerns related to the COVID-19 vaccines, media campaigns, and using vaccination reminder systems.

Accordingly, this project paper seeks to evaluate the use of reminder systems and improved vaccine information availability intervention protocols aimed to improve adult vaccination rates among older adult populations. It will compare these vaccination intervention protocols to the use of vaccine mandates in the drive toward vaccination, focusing on vaccine hesitancy toward COVID-19 vaccination.

PICOT Question

In older adults aged 60 and above (P), does the use of reminder systems and improved vaccine information availability (I), compared to vaccine mandates (C), improve adult vaccination rates for COVID-19 (O) over a six-month period (T)?

Overview of the Problem

Many Americans are at risk of getting infected with COVID-19. The higher risks are due to demographic factors such as a significant portion of an aged population and a higher prevalence of health conditions such as diabetes, obesity, and cardiopulmonary diseases, among other disease-related risk factors. Despite this, COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy remains a challenge in the United States, even among at-risk populations (Coustasse et al., 2021).

Vaccine hesitancy and resistance have been high among older adults. Various factors fuel the hesitancy and resistance against COVID-19 vaccination. There is no sufficient testing and safety data. Concerns over the safety and efficacy of vaccines among older adults have been the leading factors for vaccine resistance and hesitancy (Arvanitis et al., 2021). There has been widespread misinformation and rumors from unreliable sources of a number of aged people having extremely negative outcomes, including death after vaccination (Bhagianadh & Arora, 2022). In addition, there are also concerns related to the effect of the vaccines on populations with pre-existing compromised immunity. Some cases have shown the vaccine further weakens the immunity of patients with compromised immune status, leading to higher risks of mortality, morbidity, and paralysis (Corse et al., 2020). Notably, among 34 percent of the older adults aged above 60 who either resisted or hesitated to uptake the COVID-19 vaccine, a majority cited the lac