Before and Beyond Covid-19: A Multidisciplinary Study on Vaccine Hesitancy in a Post-Pandemic World

Since 2020, the focus on vaccines has primarily centered around Covid-19, shaping both public and scientific debates, as well as communication strategies and individual perceptions. Vaccine hesitancy, in particular, has become entangled with politically charged and media-driven narratives, often creating a polarized divide between supporters and skeptics, which has complicated a deeper understanding of the issue. In this study, we take a multidisciplinary approach, combining insights from sociologists, social psychologists and physicians, to explore the different aspects of vaccine hesitancy— fear, lack of awareness, knowledge gaps, uncertainty, and trust— and how these factors influence vaccination behaviors beyond the immediate crisis of the pandemic. While the research emerged in the wake of the Covid-19 emergency, our scope extends beyond that single vaccine to include others: Measles, Tetanus, Hepatitis B, and HPV. To begin, we carried out an extensive literature review, analyzing the contents of 124 articles indexed on Scopus and published in international journals between 2013 and 2023. Subsequently, quali-quantitative research was carried out through the administration of a standardized questionnaire using a mixed-method approach (CAWI-CATI), involving a sample of 1.000 individuals, proportionally distributed across Italian regions and covering the entire Italian territory. The research investigates the relationship between the various dimensions of vaccine hesitancy concerning the different types of vaccines considered, in comparison with pre- and post-Covid literature. The primary goal is to determine whether, and to what extent, the debate surrounding Covid-19 vaccinations has influenced the perception of the effectiveness of other vaccines for different diseases; secondly, we aim to examine the narrative frames employed in vaccine communication and how they influence the motivations or positions of hesitant populations.