vaccine hesitancy

noun

plural vaccine hesitancies

: the reluctance or refusal to have oneself or one's children vaccinated

Vaccine hesitancy can contribute to the continued spread of disease because vaccinations are not being administered.

—Fred Steiner

Scientists are expressing concern over what they call "vaccine hesitancy" regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.

—Katie Camero

WHO [World Health Organization] notes that measles cases have increased by 30 percent across the globe, and while not all cases are due to vaccine hesitancies, some countries that had nearly eliminated the disease have seen its return.

—Katie Gillespie

Examples of vaccine hesitancy in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Yet despite the success of COVID vaccines, the pandemic also coincided with an increase in vaccine hesitancy or distrust worldwide, fueled in part by anti-vax activism. —Miranda Jeyaretnam, Time, 10 Oct. 2025

Some worry that this proposal could further fuel vaccine hesitancy by reinforcing unfounded fears about combination vaccines and ultimately leading to fewer children receiving timely protection against serious diseases. —Katia Hetter, CNN Money, 8 Oct. 2025

Increasing vaccine hesitancy is just one factor. —Erika Edwards, NBC news, 25 Sep. 2025

Native people have been harmed as a direct result of the colonial policies of reservations, the underfunding of the Indian Health Service, the lack of access to PPE [masks and other protective equipment] and now, in some areas, the targeting of the Native community to increase vaccine hesitancy. —Suzette Brewer, Scientific American, 23 Sep. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

2002, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

vaccine hesitancy

noun

: the reluctance or refusal to have oneself or one's children vaccinated

Scientists are expressing concern over what they call "vaccine hesitancy" regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.

—Katie Camero, The Miami Herald

Reasons for vaccine hesitancy fit into 3 categories: lack of confidence (in effectiveness, safety, the system, or policy makers), complacency (perceived low risk of acquiring VPDs [vaccine preventable diseases]), and lack of convenience …

—Shixin Shen and Vinita Dubey, Canadian Family Physician

WHO [World Health Organization] notes that measles cases have increased by 30 percent across the globe, and while not all cases are due to vaccine hesitancies, some countries that had nearly eliminated the disease have seen its return.

—Katie Gillespie, The Columbian (Vancouver, Washington)