Lack of trust in public figures linked to COVID vaccine hesitancy – new research

By Kausik Chaudhuri, Senior Lecturer in Economics, University of Leeds
Anindita Chakrabarti, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Leeds
Joht Singh Chandan, Academic Clinical Lecturer in Public Health, University of Birmingham
Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay, Professor of Economics, University of Birmingham

An estimated 132 million COVID vaccines were given to people in Britain in 2021. Yet despite this, over a year into the UK’s vaccination programme, a significant number of people still don’t have any vaccine-based protection against the coronavirus. Around one in ten eligible people in the UK still haven’t had a first COVID vaccine dose.

Who makes up this hesitant group, and what are their reasons for not taking a COVID vaccine? These are questions that

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