13 million Facebook users weigh in on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, vaccination, and mask wearing

A recent article published in BMC Public Health by Faculty Associate Quynh Nguyen and others in the University of Maryland School of Public Health highlights a collaborative effort between the scientific and private sectors to identify barriers to COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and preventative behaviors.

The U.S. COVID-19 Trends and Impact Survey, which ran from January 2021 to February 2022, was accessible to all Facebook users based in the United States. This sampling technique allowed 13,426,245 individuals to participate and for responses to be tied to contextual spatial data (i.e., users' zip codes). Using logistic regression, Nguyen found higher vaccination rates and lower vaccine hesitancy to be more common in individuals who were older, held higher educational degrees, worked in white collar jobs, wore a mask most or all the time, and identified as white and Asian. Groups identified to have lower vaccination rates and higher vaccine hesitancy included Black and multiracial individuals, as well as essential and blue-collar workers.

Regarding masking behaviors, women and older adults were more likely to wear masks most or all of the time. In general, racial / ethnic minorities were more likely to wear masks most of the time or all the time compared to white individuals. Protective service, construction, and installation and repair workers had lower odds of wearing masks. Lastly, individuals living in zip codes with a higher percentage of bachelors degree holders was associated with more frequent mask wearing, higher vaccination rates, and lower vaccine hesitancy.

Interestingly, these inequities were found to be stable over time (i.e., at the start of the pandemic compared to a year later). Nguyen points to these inequities as a target for intervention to prevent the burden of the COVID-19 pandemic from disproportionately falling upon these subgroups of the population.