Objective  To evaluate the change in willingness to have vaccination and its related factors among the public after Changchun Changsheng vaccine safety incident and to provide references for developing vaccination-related education programs and strategies for public health emergency management.

  Methods  We conducted an online survey during August 13 – 20, 2018 (about one month after the reporting of Changchun Changsheng vaccine safety incident in public media) among 1 048 adult internet users (≥ 18 years) recruited with snowball sampling with a self-designed questionnaire on respondents′ demographics, recognition on the incident and the willingness to have vaccination. The participants′ responses were automatically collected via a network platform. Logistic regression model was used to analyze influencing factors for the participants′ willingness.

  Results  Of all the respondents, 30.7% (322) reported the hesitation to receive a necessary rabies vaccination and the reported hesitation differed significantly by gender, education, and occupation (P < 0.05). For all the parental respondents, 32.2% (216/671) reported hesitation about their children′s diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus (DPT) vaccination and the hesitation was influenced only by occupation. The proportion of reporting vaccine hesitancy was not significantly higher among the respondents being aware of the vaccine safety incident than among those being not aware of the incident (P > 0.05) although there was a strong reaction among the public when the incident was first reported.

  Conclusion  The impact of Changchun Changsheng vaccine safety incident on citizens′ vaccine hesitancy differs by the citizens′ education and occupation. Relevant administrative agencies should pay more attentions to the management on vaccine safety incidents and carry out effective communication with the public to ensure the implementation of planned immunization.