evidence: Furthermore, the analysis shows that users viewed their personal risk of getting infected with COVID-19, suffering from a severe course of the disease and developing serious complications from an infection as low. Therefore, vaccination was not regarded necessary. Mild symptoms, a young age and a good subjective health status were reported as relevant factors leading to that evaluation. [...] Moreover, some users on social media stated that prior infections with COVID-19 made them immune to reinfection, including immunity to mutations of the virus, and therefore a vaccination was not necessary. In line with that, some users believed that a prior infection offered more natural protection than the vaccines. [...] A low perceived benefit of the vaccination and a low subjective risk of getting COVID-19 can also be counteracted by providing laypersons with easily understandable and transparent information about the etiology as well as the course of the disease and possible sequelae of an infection such as Long-COVID.