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Factors associated with the unwillingness of Jordanians, Palestinians and Syrians to be vaccinated against COVID-19

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to continue to inflect immense burdens of morbidity and mortality, not to mention the sever disruption of societies and economies worldwide. One of the major challenges to managing COVID-19 pandemic is the negative attitudes towards vaccines and the unce...

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Autores principales: Zein, Sima, Abdallah, Sarah B., Al-Smadi, Ahmed, Gammoh, Omar, Al-Awaida, Wajdy J., Al-Zein, Hanan J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8659347/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34882673
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009957
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author Zein, Sima
Abdallah, Sarah B.
Al-Smadi, Ahmed
Gammoh, Omar
Al-Awaida, Wajdy J.
Al-Zein, Hanan J.
author_facet Zein, Sima
Abdallah, Sarah B.
Al-Smadi, Ahmed
Gammoh, Omar
Al-Awaida, Wajdy J.
Al-Zein, Hanan J.
author_sort Zein, Sima
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to continue to inflect immense burdens of morbidity and mortality, not to mention the sever disruption of societies and economies worldwide. One of the major challenges to managing COVID-19 pandemic is the negative attitudes towards vaccines and the uncertainty or unwillingness to receive vaccinations. We evaluated the predictors and factors behind the negative attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccines in 3 countries in the Middle East. METHODS: A cross-sectional, self-administered survey was conducted between the 1(st) and the 25(th) of December, 2020. Representative sample of 8619 adults residing in Jordan, West Bank, and Syria, completed the survey via the Web or via telephone interview. The survey intended to assess intent to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and to identify predictors of and reasons among participants unwilling/hesitant to get vaccinated. RESULTS: The total of the 8619 participants included in this study were the ones who answered the question on the intent to be vaccinated. Overall, 32.2% of participants (n = 2772) intended to be vaccinated, 41.6% (n = 3589) didn’t intend to get vaccinated, and 26.2% (n = 2258) were not sure. The main factors associated with the willingness to take the vaccine (yes responses) included females, 18–35 years old, Syrians and Jordanians, a large family size, and having received a flu vaccine last year. Reasons for vaccine hesitancy included the lack of rigorous evaluation of the vaccine by the FDA and the possible long-term health risks associated with the vaccines (the wait-and-see approach). CONCLUSION: This survey, conducted in December when the number of cases and deaths per day due to COVID-19 were at or near peak levels of the initial surge in the three regions under investigation. The survey revealed that most of survey’s participants (67.8%) were unwilling/hesitant to get vaccinated against COVID-19 with the lack of trust in the approval process of the vaccine being the main concern; the two main characteristics of those participants were more than 35 years old and participants holding a Bachelor’s degree or higher. Targeted and multi-pronged efforts will be needed to increase acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine in Jordan, West Bank and Syria.
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spelling pubmed-86593472021-12-10 Factors associated with the unwillingness of Jordanians, Palestinians and Syrians to be vaccinated against COVID-19 Zein, Sima Abdallah, Sarah B. Al-Smadi, Ahmed Gammoh, Omar Al-Awaida, Wajdy J. Al-Zein, Hanan J. PLoS Negl Trop Dis Research Article BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to continue to inflect immense burdens of morbidity and mortality, not to mention the sever disruption of societies and economies worldwide. One of the major challenges to managing COVID-19 pandemic is the negative attitudes towards vaccines and the uncertainty or unwillingness to receive vaccinations. We evaluated the predictors and factors behind the negative attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccines in 3 countries in the Middle East. METHODS: A cross-sectional, self-administered survey was conducted between the 1(st) and the 25(th) of December, 2020. Representative sample of 8619 adults residing in Jordan, West Bank, and Syria, completed the survey via the Web or via telephone interview. The survey intended to assess intent to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and to identify predictors of and reasons among participants unwilling/hesitant to get vaccinated. RESULTS: The total of the 8619 participants included in this study were the ones who answered the question on the intent to be vaccinated. Overall, 32.2% of participants (n = 2772) intended to be vaccinated, 41.6% (n = 3589) didn’t intend to get vaccinated, and 26.2% (n = 2258) were not sure. The main factors associated with the willingness to take the vaccine (yes responses) included females, 18–35 years old, Syrians and Jordanians, a large family size, and having received a flu vaccine last year. Reasons for vaccine hesitancy included the lack of rigorous evaluation of the vaccine by the FDA and the possible long-term health risks associated with the vaccines (the wait-and-see approach). CONCLUSION: This survey, conducted in December when the number of cases and deaths per day due to COVID-19 were at or near peak levels of the initial surge in the three regions under investigation. The survey revealed that most of survey’s participants (67.8%) were unwilling/hesitant to get vaccinated against COVID-19 with the lack of trust in the approval process of the vaccine being the main concern; the two main characteristics of those participants were more than 35 years old and participants holding a Bachelor’s degree or higher. Targeted and multi-pronged efforts will be needed to increase acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine in Jordan, West Bank and Syria. Public Library of Science 2021-12-09 /pmc/articles/PMC8659347/ /pubmed/34882673 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009957 Text en © 2021 Zein et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Zein, Sima
Abdallah, Sarah B.
Al-Smadi, Ahmed
Gammoh, Omar
Al-Awaida, Wajdy J.
Al-Zein, Hanan J.
Factors associated with the unwillingness of Jordanians, Palestinians and Syrians to be vaccinated against COVID-19
title Factors associated with the unwillingness of Jordanians, Palestinians and Syrians to be vaccinated against COVID-19
title_full Factors associated with the unwillingness of Jordanians, Palestinians and Syrians to be vaccinated against COVID-19
title_fullStr Factors associated with the unwillingness of Jordanians, Palestinians and Syrians to be vaccinated against COVID-19
title_full_unstemmed Factors associated with the unwillingness of Jordanians, Palestinians and Syrians to be vaccinated against COVID-19
title_short Factors associated with the unwillingness of Jordanians, Palestinians and Syrians to be vaccinated against COVID-19
title_sort factors associated with the unwillingness of jordanians, palestinians and syrians to be vaccinated against covid-19
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8659347/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34882673
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009957
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