Sociological Research on Vaccine-Related Reflexes: the Case of Van

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in changes that have disabled routines in many respects regarding the daily form social life takes around the world. Numerous restrictions such as wearing masks, physical distancing, disinfectant use, and curfews have been put into effect to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus, and this has suspended the established norms of individual, societal, state, and interstate relations. Three different social reflexes and groups have emerged that can be categorized as provaccine, anti-vaccine, and hesitant with regard to vaccines' ability to end or minimize the effects of the pandemic. The aim of this study is to reveal the attitudes and perceptions toward COVID-19 vaccines regarding a sample group of 1,635 people in Van, one of the relatively least socioeconomically developed cities in Turkiye with a low elderly population and below-average rate of residents who've caught COVID-19 in Turkiye. This study focuses on determining the relationships that gender, age, marital status, education level, household size, income level, occupation, political party preference, chronic illness, and whether contracted COVID or not (if so, the severity) have with their status of being pro-vaccine, anti-vaccine, or vaccine-hesitant. The findings reveal a significant relationship to exist between vaccine attitude and the selected variables apart from gender and chronic illness, and status of having contracted COVID-19 or not.