Abstract

Vaccines are considered one of the greatest public health achievements – contributing to the eradication of childhood diseases and significantly reducing the disease burden of many infectious diseases. Despite these advances, vaccine hesitancy remains a significant barrier to achieving a fully inoculated population to combat disease. Vaccines played and will continue to serve a pivotal role in reducing disease spread, namely COVID-19 and its variants. This project aims to understand and identify attitudes and potential hesitancies in receiving the COVID-19 vaccine within the Central Valley. Demographic characteristics will inform future interventions for those most likely and least likely to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. By understanding why individuals choose to receive or not receive the COVID-19 vaccine, this project can inform future intervention programs to increase vaccine uptake within the Central Valley.