COVID-19 Vaccination-Related Thoughts, Behaviors, and Expectations of the Academic Personnel in Hacettepe University Medical School

OBJECTIVE: The World Health Organization announced the new coronavirus disease 2019 as a pandemic, as of March 11, 2020. The long-expected method to combat coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, that is, using an effective and widely available vaccine, has become reality by late 2020. This study was conducted prior to the national coronavirus disease 2019 mass vaccination campaign in Turkey to investigate the individual thoughts, behaviors, and expectations of the academic personnel on coronavirus disease 2019 vaccination practices, who were among the pionneers in both vaccine trials and real-time coronavirus disease 2019 vaccine jabs. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The Hacettepe University Medical School has a total of 1692 academic personnel. All academicians were reached through their academic email addresses and invited to participate in the survey. Busy academic routines and coronavirus disease 2019-related duties limited response number to 213 academicians, after 3 consecutive reminders at 1 week interval. The survey was conducted using a standardized, 14 question-long questionnaire, using Google forms. RESULTS: Of the 213 participants, 60.6% (n = 129) were females and the average age (± standard deviation) was 40.2 ± 12.0 years. Of all, 17.4% (n = 37) had been reportedly diagnosed to have coronavirus disease 2019 prior to vaccination. A statistically significant positive association was detected between coronavirus disease 2019 vaccination self-experience and recommending such a vaccination for relatives (P < .001); odds of recommendation was 19.5 times (95% CI = 4.2-89.6) higher among coronavirus disease 2019 vaccinated academicians compared to their non-vaccinated counterparts. CONCLUSION: Study participants are amongs the frontline workers, with expectedly the highest exposure rates from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2. A significant proportion of academicians also play important role as scientific consultants and role models for the general public. Thus, their thoughts and concerns regarding public preventive measures and coronavirus disease 2019 vaccination practices are important for decisions health policy makers and administrators in charge of vaccine selection, availability, distribution, and allocation make, besides their self-responsibility in provision of evidence-based vaccine information for the general public, based on local needs and concerns.