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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Infectious Diseases: Epidemiology and Prevention
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1446984
This article is part of the Research Topic Pandemic Preparedness in Vaccine Safety and Regulation View all articles
Perceptions of the safety, development, and approval process of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccines among individuals with Affordable Care Act health insurance in Central Texas at the time of initial vaccine availability
Provisionally accepted- 1 Sendero Health Plans, Austin, United States
- 2 Johns Hopkins Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, United States
- 3 The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States
- 4 Independent researcher, Austin, United States
Sendero Health Plans, an Affordable Care Act (ACA) health insurance company, conducted a cross-sectional survey in December 2020 to assess individual perceptions of the COVID-19 development and approval processes and their plan to obtain the COVID-19 vaccine in Central Texas at the time of initial availability. A logistic regression model was developed to identify factors associated with individual plans to obtain a vaccine when it became available. A total of 500 (77.25%) of the 645 respondents in this analysis planned to obtain a COVID-19 vaccine when it became available. The logistic regression model was statistically significant [χ2(19) = 314.41, p < .001]. Plans to obtain a COVID-19 vaccine were significantly associated with perceptions of vaccine safety (POR: 23.45, p = 0.001, 95% CI: 3.10, 58.34), vaccine protectiveness (POR: 15.55, p < 0.001, 95% CI: 3.55, 68.06), and transparency of the authorization process (POR: 1.33, p = 0.024, 95% CI: 1.15, 7.15). Perceptions regarding the safety, protectiveness, and authorization process of the COVID-19 vaccines are associated with individual plans to obtain the vaccines. This study provides insights into factors that influence vaccination intent and key barriers affecting vaccine hesitancy during a public health crisis.
Keywords: COVID-19, Vaccines, Affordable Care Act, vaccine attitudes, Vaccine beliefs
Received: 10 Jun 2024; Accepted: 21 Jan 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lopez Bray, Taylor, Tamez, Durkalski and Litaker. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Carlos Lopez Bray, Sendero Health Plans, Austin, United States
John Litaker, Independent researcher, Austin, United States
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