Abstract
Background: The World Health Organization has recommended that individual governments identify vaccine hesitancy areas. It is proposed that the governments, with the aid of local organizations, educate and implement social insights on the vaccination so that high population levels are covered with this safe immune program. Methods: A longitudinal online survey covered 3000 adults from India. We examined the demography, behavioral (socio-economic) attitude, vaccine hesitancy, vaccine resistance for the COVID-19 vaccine. The specific reasons for the COVID-19 vaccine decline were also evaluated. Results: Our survey revealed 59% definite response, 29% low-level response, and 7% high-level response for vaccine hesitancy, while 6% had resistant views on the COVID-19 vaccine. Individuals who had higher income levels, lived in a society, maintained social distancing, had downloaded the COVID-19 update app, showed a positive attitude towards their government, and more confidence in their healthcare system were more inclined towards the vaccination. On the contrary, individuals who had overstated the risks of COVID-19 and had a religious and populistic attitude towards vaccination were more hesitant/resistant to vaccination. The respondents who declined vaccine administration were further evaluated for their specific reason for their response. The most common reasons for declining the COVID-19 vaccine were post-vaccine scare of adverse health effects and accepting the information spread by social media. Conclusions: The results in our study show that by identifying population “hot spots” that have negative or unclear information on the COVID-19 vaccination, these “hot spots” can be addressed by involving friendly organizations that can clear their strong disbeliefs and increase the percentage of vaccine-definite people within the population. The role of government-induced COVID-19 vaccine policy measures can always be beneficial to cause this shift from disbelief to confidence within the population.
Highlights
Vaccines have been the foremost confronting factor against viral illness
Vaccine hesitancy and resistance have shown to be consistently high across the globe during the COVID-19 pandemic
As herd immunity mainly depends on the effectiveness of the administered vaccine and the percentage of the population covered by the vaccine, COVID-19 vaccine coverage in India remains dubious, as, with our study, only 59% of respondents were likely to get the vaccination
Summary
Vaccines have been the foremost confronting factor against viral illness. historically vaccine hesitancy has been a challenging factor all over the world. Reasons for vaccine hesitancy worldwide have varied from religious aspects to its association with adverse health hazards [1]. The issues related to vaccine hesitancy have resulted in individual governments in various countries worldwide forming health authorities and research panels to identify the most common variables and reasons for vaccine hesitancy. The World Health Organization has recommended that individual governments identify vaccine hesitancy areas. It is proposed that the governments, with the aid of local organizations, educate and implement social insights on the vaccination so that high population levels are covered with this safe immune program. The most common reasons for declining the COVID-19 vaccine were post-vaccine scare of adverse health effects and accepting the information spread by social media. The role of government-induced COVID-19 vaccine policy measures can always be beneficial to cause this shift from disbelief to confidence within the population
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