Understanding COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in Black, East Asian, and Eastern European Diasporic Communities in Toronto: A Scoping Review.

Abstract

Canada achieved COVID-19 vaccination coverage of 83.2% in the total population (at least one dose). However, only 49.6% of Canadians completed the primary series plus one booster (which defines one as fully vaccinated). Inconsistent uptake of COVID-19 vaccines impeded pandemic response and led to increased demands in a stretched health care system. To advance pandemic preparedness, a critical understanding of vaccine access and hesitancy is needed. We undertook a scoping review to identify the primary reasons for vaccine hesitancy in Toronto's East Asian, Black, and Eastern European diaspora. A total of 5548 articles were retrieved from PubMed, OVID, JSTOR, ERIC and 27 and 43 from Google Scholar and Google respectively. De-duplication left us with 42 relevant sources for data extraction, including 19 news articles, 9 commentaries, 11 pieces of grey literature and 3 peer reviewed articles that were not identified via academic databases. Our review results revealed four factors for COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among East Asian, Black, and Eastern European diasporas in Toronto: (a) access barriers; (b) mistrust; (c) racism; and (d) misinformation. These factors can create conditions of re-racialization by stereotyping entire ethnoracial groups or convincing members of these groups to become vaccine skeptics.