Abstract
COVID-19 vaccines have met varying levels of acceptance and hesitancy in different parts of the world, which has implications for eliminating the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this systematic review is to examine how and why the rates of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and hesitancy differ across countries and continents. PubMed, Web of Science, IEEE Xplore and Science Direct were searched between 1 January 2020 and 31 July 2021 using keywords such as “COVID-19 vaccine acceptance”. 81 peer-reviewed publications were found to be eligible for review. The analysis shows that there are global variations in vaccine acceptance among different populations. The vaccine-acceptance rates were the highest amongst adults in Ecuador (97%), Malaysia (94.3%) and Indonesia (93.3%) and the lowest amongst adults in Lebanon (21.0%). The general healthcare workers (HCWs) in China (86.20%) and nurses in Italy (91.50%) had the highest acceptance rates, whereas HCWs in the Democratic Republic of Congo had the lowest acceptance (27.70%). A nonparametric one-way ANOVA showed that the differences in vaccine-acceptance rates were statistically significant (H (49) = 75.302, p = 0.009*) between the analyzed countries. However, the reasons behind vaccine hesitancy and acceptance were similar across the board. Low vaccine acceptance was associated with low levels of education and awareness, and inefficient government efforts and initiatives. Furthermore, poor influenza-vaccination history, as well as conspiracy theories relating to infertility and misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine on social media also resulted in vaccine hesitancy. Strategies to address these concerns may increase global COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and accelerate our efforts to eliminate this pandemic.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted many aspects of our everyday lives and changed the socio-economic fabric of the entire world [1,2,3,4]
COVID-19 vaccine-acceptance rates differ according to the countries and continents of the world
The majority of the studies included in this systematic review reported COVID-19 vaccine-acceptance rates of >60%
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted many aspects of our everyday lives and changed the socio-economic fabric of the entire world [1,2,3,4]. Home-healthcare supply-chain frameworks have been introduced based on programming models that aid patients in selecting pharmacies, enhance the selection and routing of nurses and help caregivers connect with patients in a timely manner [10] Despite these protective measures, the coronavirus continued to spread and harm individuals including children, the elderly and people with medical conditions such as cancer, diabetes and respiratory diseases, who were at the highest risk of contracting the infection [5,11,12,13]. Several studies have reported clinically significant depression, stress and decreased mental well-being in HCWs [23,24] Due to these numerous harmful effects of the COVID-19 virus, there is a crucial need to develop and administer vaccines in order to eliminate this deadly pandemic [24,25]
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