A survey experiment on the implications of vaccine technology and communicating health official for confidence in the safety and effectiveness of emergency use authorization vaccines

A growing number of people express hesitancy toward vaccines, especially toward new vaccines and those that rely on novel platforms. This research reports on a survey experiment conducted in the United States that investigated how confidence in the safety and effectiveness of new vaccines, available under Emergency Use Authorizations, were impacted by the vaccine platform and the health official communicating with the public about a vaccine. An online survey was developed and administered in March 2025. The survey presented a fictitious outbreak scenario and used an experimental approach to test how confidence in the safety and effectiveness of vaccines varied based on differences in the vaccine platform and the health official communicating about a vaccine. Vaccine platforms included an unspecified novel platform and a traditional vaccine platform; officials included those at the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state health departments, and local health departments. Survey respondents used 5-point Likert scales to quantify confidence in vaccine safety and vaccine effectiveness. t -tests and multiple ordinal logistic regression were used to evaluate associations between confidence levels, vaccine characteristics, communicating health official, and respondent characteristics. Modifying effects of vaccine platform were assessed using an interaction term between vaccine platform and communicating health official. Associations were observed between confidence in vaccine safety and vaccine platform, communicating health official, sex, race, ethnicity, education, employment, and partisanship. Similarly, associations were observed between confidence in vaccine effectiveness and vaccine platform, communicating health official, sex, race, ethnicity, education, employment, and partisanship. No evidence of effect modification was observed. These findings provide key insights into factors that influence the public's confidence in vaccines available under Emergency Use Authorizations and suggest that both the vaccine platform and officials communicating about vaccines can influence confidence in the safety and effectiveness of vaccines.