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A printable PDF version of the Oxford COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence & Complacency Scale is available for download and use.

This is a fourteen-item measure, derived from a study with 5,114 UK adults, quota sampled to match the population for age, gender, ethnicity, income, and region. Item specific response options, coded from 1 to 5, are used. A ‘Don’t know’ option is also provided, which is excluded from scoring. Higher scores indicate a higher level of negative beliefs about a COVID-19 vaccine. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses identified four factors: collective importance of a COVID-19 vaccine (Cronbach’s alpha=.90); beliefs that the respondent may get COVID-19 and the vaccine will work (Cronbach’s alpha=.77); speed of vaccine development (Cronbach’s alpha=.88); and side effects (Cronbach’s alpha=.78). Full details of the questionnaire development can be found in the supplementary materials of the paper.

Reference: Freeman, D., Loe, B.S., Chadwick, A., Vaccari, C., Waite, F., Rosebrock, L., Jenner, L., Petit, A., Lewandowsky, S., Vanderslott, S., Innocenti, S., Larkin, M., Giubilini, A., Yu, L-M., McShane, H., Pollard, A.J., & Lambe, S. (2020). COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the UK: The Oxford Coronavirus Explanations, Attitudes, and Narratives Survey (OCEAN) II. Psychological Medicine. 

1: Do you think you will be infected with COVID-19 over the next 12 months?

☐   Definitely

☐   Probably

☐   I may or I may not

☐   Probably not

☐   Definitely not

☐   Don’t know

2: The COVID-19 vaccine is likely to:

☐   Work for almost everyone

☐   Work for most people

☐   I am unsure how many people it will work for

☐   Not work for most people

☐   Not work for anyone

☐   Don’t know

3: The COVID-19 vaccine is likely to:

☐   Definitely work for me

☐   Probably work for me

☐   May or may not work for me

☐   Probably not work for me

☐   Definitely not work for me

☐   Don’t know

4: If I get the COVID-19 vaccine it will be:

☐   Really helpful for the community around me

☐   Helpful for the community around me

☐   Neither helpful nor unhelpful for the community around me

☐   Unhelpful for the community around me

☐   Really unhelpful for the community around me

☐   Don’t know

5: If individuals like me get the COVID-19 vaccine it will:

☐   Save a large number of lives

☐   Save some lives

☐   Have no impact

☐   Lead to more deaths

☐   Lead to a large number of deaths

☐   Don’t know

6: The speed of developing and testing the vaccine means it will be:

☐   Really good

☐   Good

☐   Will not affect how good or bad it is

☐   Bad

☐   Really bad

☐   Don’t know

7: The speed of developing and testing the vaccine means it will be:

☐   Really safe

☐   Safe

☐   It will not affect how safe it is

☐   Unsafe

☐   Really unsafe

☐   Don’t know

8: If many people do not get the vaccine this:

☐   Will be dangerous

☐   May be dangerous

☐   Will have no consequences at all

☐   May be good

☐   Will be good

☐   Don’t know

9: I expect that receiving the vaccine will be:

☐   Hardly noticeable

☐   A little unpleasant

☐   Moderately unpleasant

☐   Painful

☐   Extremely painful

☐   Don’t know

10: The side effects for people of getting the COVID-19 vaccine will be:

☐   None

☐   Mild

☐   Moderate

☐   Significant

☐   Life-threatening

☐   Don’t know

11: The COVID-19 vaccine will:

☐   Greatly strengthen my immune system

☐   Strengthen my immune system

☐   It will neither strengthen nor weaken my immune system

☐   Weaken my immune system

☐   Greatly weaken my immune system

☐   Don’t know

12: Taking the COVID-19 vaccine:

☐   Will give me complete freedom to get on with life just as before

☐   Will give me greater freedom

☐   Will have no effect on my freedom

☐   Will restrict my freedom

☐   Will completely restrict my freedom to get on with life

☐   Don’t know

13: Getting the vaccine is a sign of:

☐   Great personal strength

☐   Personal strength

☐   Not a sign of personal strength or weakness

☐   Personal weakness

☐   Great personal weakness

☐   Don’t know

14: Taking a new COVID-19 vaccine will make me feel like a guinea pig:

☐   Do not agree

☐   Agree a little

☐   Agree moderately

☐   Agree a lot

☐   Completely agree

☐   Don’t know