Vaccination against covid-19: the opinion of medical students

Abstract

Introduction. One of the pressing issues in public health today is the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, including vaccine prophylaxis, its possibilities, necessity and safety. Proper professional advocacy plays an important role in the success of the vaccination campaign. Medical school students are also part of the professional community, who are as close as possible to the population and can be a source of information for them to influence their decisions about whether or not to vaccinate. The aim of the work was to study the attitudes of medical university students, as carriers of special information, toward vaccination against COVID-19. Materials and methods. A questionnaire survey was administered to 151 medical university students from Chelyabinsk and Ekaterinburg, mainly from the 4th to 6th years of medical, pediatric, and preventive medicine faculties. Results. Many of the trainees participating in the study are familiar with the new coronavirus infection (have themselves had an infection, are involved in providing medical care to patients with the new coronavirus infection), and more than 80% have been vaccinated against COVID-19. 63.0% of unvaccinated respondents do not plan to vaccinate in the near future, half of them due to uncertainty about the effectiveness of the vaccine. 44.9% of all respondents were not afraid of adverse effects of vaccination, and a large proportion (55.1%) expected reactions and even complications after vaccinated against COVID-19. They consider vaccination to be effective against COVID-19 47.5%, and 52.5% of those surveyed are not sure about vaccination effectiveness. Discussion. The effectiveness of vaccination for airborne infections is determined by the one-step coverage of a large (at least 70.0%) portion of the population. Most of the students surveyed intend to recommend vaccination against COVID-19 (almost 63%); however, 37.1% are not yet ready to do so. The motivations for their own vaccination are equally understanding of its necessity and fear of administrative restrictions. The study participants form their judgments about the problem under study mainly on the basis of popular publications and mass media appearances, which is confirmed by their low appeal to official statistics and special sources. Conclusion. To date, medical university students have not had a pronounced interest in learning about the new coronavirus infection, so the educational process under the COVID-19 pandemic needs to pay special attention to the problem under discussion.