Moroccan Facebook Users Refusing Covid-19 Vaccine: A Thematic Analysis

Vaccination against COVID-19 has been available in Morocco since January 2021. However, some of people report not wanting to be vaccinated. In order to increase the willingness of the population to get vaccinated, the Moroccan government launched its free nationwide vaccination campaign. Therefore, this study attempts to investigate the reasons leading to rejecting the vaccination based on posts from Moroccan Facebook users. Accordingly, Facebook was searched regarding negative attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination. A thematic analysis was used to analyze the data and to inductively generate codes, subcategories and categories. Based on 100 posts written by Facebook users, three main themes were identified for refusing a COVID-19 vaccination: mistrust of vaccination, health concerns, and lack of information. The study emphasizes the relevance of providing trustworthy and quality-assured information on COVID-19 vaccination to the population.