The term “vaccine hesitancy” was in wide use years before the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The term focuses on individual-level attitudes toward vaccines. Throughout the pandemic, much popular and scholarly discussion about COVID-19 transmission focused on individual-level decisions, making it easy to blame the unvaccinated. By focusing on individual decisions, it is easy to overlook other reasons for suboptimal vaccine uptake. These include politicization, distrust of the health system due to systemic racism, social inequities, and barriers to access and acceptance. View More