The government of Pakistan started vaccination campaign for the frontline healthcare pro-viders, as they are more likely to be exposed to COVID-19 patients. In the next step, it ex-tended the free vaccination campaign to include people above 60 and 50 years of age re-spectively. The drive is now open to all citizens >18 years of age. There is a significant re-luctance to get vaccinated even though the government has provided it free of cost. The project uses self-reporting method to assess reasons of vaccine hesitancy among Pakistanis and possible solutions to overcome this problem. Concern for serious side effects was the most common issue 154 (48.42%) reported among all groups of people, including the healthcare workers. The major sources of COVID-19 related information were television 117 (36.8%) and healthcare professionals 105 (33%). The participants reported that they can be convinced to get vaccinated if more published data related to vaccine efficacy and safety is available 118 (37.1%), they observe no side effect among vaccine recipients 90 (28.3%) or higher government officials get the same vaccine 39 (12.3%). Vigorous analysis and publication of data generated is paramount to increase the percentage of people being vaccinated. The healthcare professionals should share evidence-based knowledge related to vaccine efficacy and safety through television and social media to increase acceptance rates and hence, decrease mortality and morbidity from COVID-19 in Pakistan.
References
[1]
Dror, A.A., Eisenbach, N., Taiber, S., Morozov, N.G., Mizrachi, M., Zigron, A., Srouji, S. and Sela, E. (2020) Vaccine Hesitancy: The Next Challenge in the Fight against COVID-19. European Journal of Epidemiology, 35, 775-779. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-020-00671-y
[2]
Vaccine Hesitancy in Pakistan Heightens Risk of COVID Resurgence. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/5/in-pakistan-vaccine-hesitancy-heightens-risk-of-covid-19-resurge
[3]
Khan, Y.H., Mallhi, T.H., Alotaibi, N.H., Alzarea, A.I., Alanazi, A.S., Tanveer, N. and Hashmi, F.K. (2020) Threat of COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in Pakistan: The Need for Measures to Neutralize Misleading Narratives. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 103, 603-604. https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.20-0654
[4]
Ali, M., Ahmad, N., Khan, H., Ali, S., Akbar, F. and Hussain, Z. (2019) Polio Vaccination Controversy in Pakistan. The Lancet, 394, 915-916. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(19)32101-4
[5]
Bukhari, M.H., Zain, S. and Akram, J. (2020) Will COVID-19 Vaccine Genetically Modify Humans? Facts and Myths. Biomedica, 36, 329-333. https://doi.org/10.51441/BioMedica/5-72
[6]
John Hopkins, Health. COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/covid19-vaccine-hesitancy-12-things-you-need-to-know
[7]
Krammer, F., Srivastava, K., Alshammary, H., Amoako, A.A., Awawda, M.H., Beach, K.F., Bermúdez-González, M.C., Bielak, D.A., Carreño, J.M., Chernet, R.L., Eaker, L.Q., Ferreri, E.D., Floda, D.L., Gleason, C.R., Hamburger, J.Z., Jiang, K., Kleiner, G., Jurczyszak, D., Matthews, J.C., Mendez, W.A., Nabeel, I., Mulder, L.C.F., Raskin, A.J., Russo, K.T., Salimbangon, A.T., Saksena, M., Shin, A.S., Singh, G., Sominsky, L.A., Stadlbauer, D., Wajnberg, A. and Simon, V. (2021) Antibody Responses in Seropositive Persons after a Single Dose of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Vaccine. The New England Journal of Medicine, 384, 1372-1374. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMc2101667
[8]
Dogan, M., Kozhaya, L., Placek, L., Gunter, C., Yigit, M., Hardy, R., Plassmeyer, M., Coatney, P., Lillard, K., Bukhari, Z., Kleinberg, M., Hayes, C., Arditi, M., Klapper, E., Merin, N., Liang, B.T., Gupta, R., Alpan, O. and Unutmaz, D. (2021) SARS-CoV-2 Specific Antibody and Neutralization Assays Reveal the Wide Range of the Humoral Immune Response to Virus. Communications Biology, 4, 129. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-01649-6
[9]
Jaffe, E., Lyerly, A.D. and Goldfarb, I.T. (2020) Pregnant Women’s Perceptions of Risks and Benefits When Considering Participation in Vaccine Trials. Vaccine, 38, 6922-6929. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2020.08.059
[10]
Wang, K., Long, Q.X., Deng, H.J., Hu, J., Gao, Q.Z., Zhang, G.J., He, C.L., Huang, L.Y., Hu, J.L., Chen, J., Tang, N. and Huang, A.L. (2020) Longitudinal Dynamics of the Neutralizing Antibody Response to SARS-CoV-2 Infection. Clinical Infectious Diseases, ciaa1143.
[11]
Han, Y., Liu, P., Qiu, Y., Zhou, J., Liu, Y., Hu, X., Yang, Q., Huang, R., Wen, X., Song, H., Yu, P., Yang, M., Zhang, J., Liu, W.J., Peng, K., Wu, G., Zhang, D., Zhou, X. and Wu, Y. (2021) Effective Virus-Neutralizing Activities in Antisera from the First Wave of Survivors of Severe COVID-19. JCI Insight, 6, e146267. https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.146267
[12]
Fisher, K.A., Bloomstone, S.J. and Walder, J. (2020) Attitudes toward a Potential SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine: A Survey of U.S. Adults. Annals of Internal Medicine, 173, 964-973. https://doi.org/10.7326/M20-3569
[13]
Aloweidi, A., Bsisu, I., Suleiman, A., Abu-Halaweh, S., Almustafa, M. and Aqel, M. (2021) Hesitancy towards COVID-19 Vaccines: An Analytical Cross-Sectional Study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 12, 5111. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18105111
[14]
Reiter, P.L., Pennell, M.L. and Katz, M.L. (2020) Acceptability of a COVID-19 Vaccine among Adults in the United States: How Many People Would Get Vaccinated? Vaccine, 38, 6500-6507. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2020.08.043
[15]
Al Kaabi, N., Zhang, Y., Xia, S., et al. (2021) Effect of 2 Inactivated SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines on Symptomatic COVID-19 Infection in Adults: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2021.8565
[16]
Elzein, F., Ibrahim, A., Alshahrani, F., et al. (2021) Reinfection, Recurrence, or Delayed Presentation of COVID-19? Case Series and Review of the Literature. Journal of Infection and Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jiph.2021.01.002
[17]
Rizwan, W., Rana, N., Bukhari, M.H. and Sadiq, M. (2021) Vaccine Must Be Provided to Health Professionals Lactating Mothers. Journal of Human Lactation. https://doi.org/10.1177/08903344211021319
