Attitudes of a sample of Jordanian young adults toward different available COVID-19 vaccines

OBJECTIVE: Vaccination is one of the most important measures that the world is relying on to end the COVID-19 pandemic. A number of vaccines have been authorized; however, there are several differences in the available vaccines which may lead to differences in public hesitancy levels toward each vaccine. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the young Jordanian population's acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine, their knowledge, and attitudes toward different vaccine types, and to explore the variables that could influence their preferences. MATERIAL AND METHODS: An online questionnaire was distributed via Jordanian multipurpose Facebook groups. COVID-19 knowledge, and practice scores were calculated, in addition to general and specific COVID-19 vaccine knowledge scores. Repeated measures analysis was conducted to investigate the association between the participants’ knowledge about each vaccine and their willingness to take it. Quantile regressions were conducted to determine the predictors of the participants’ willingness to take each vaccine. RESULTS: A total of 1897 participants completed the survey. One fifth of the participants (19.9%) were willing to take the COVID-19 vaccine. The acceptance of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and the knowledge about it were significantly different from all the other vaccines. Predictors of acceptance of the different vaccines were sex, estimation of the severity of the disease, COVID-19 knowledge score, practice score, and specific vaccine knowledge score. CONCLUSION: The young Jordanian adults had limited acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine. Differences in the participants’ acceptance of different vaccines were observed and specific vaccine knowledge was a significant predictor of acceptance of the vaccine.