Enhancing faith and interfaith based facilitators and reducing related barriers to enhance vaccine acceptance: a qualitative study

The relationship between faith and vaccine hesitancy is complex and the need to consider religion and engage with faith leaders has been recognised. However, most faith-based interventions in this field have been conducted on individual faiths, in isolation from other faiths, and have not explored the potential for active collaboration among faith-based groups. To address this gap, we conducted a study that aimed to inform the development of interfaith-based interventions to enhance vaccine acceptance. We conducted six focus groups, two semi-structured interviews and an interfaith co-design workshop, in community, online and University settings in London. Participants were from the Islamic, Christian, Jewish, Hindu and Sikh faiths. Interviews, focus groups and the workshop were transcribed verbatim and analysed using inductive reflective thematic analysis. We found that although there were some potential barriers to vaccine uptake due to religious beliefs, religion was a facilitator of vaccine uptake via the emphasis on protecting oneself and one's community and saving lives. However, embedded barriers in religious communities were related to mistrust, feelings of stigma and blame and tokenistic engagement. Key required interventions identified by participants were (i) training faith leaders to enable them to provide tailored messages to their communities, (ii) involving faith-based communities early in the process to enable them to feel included, rather than only approaching them once they were deemed hesitant, and (iii) vaccination messages delivered by groups of leaders from different faiths, so that they are all ‘singing from the same hymn sheet’. Interventions to increase vaccine uptake among faith groups need to focus on building trust and inclusivity, rather than on religious beliefs.