COVID-19 vaccination: The greater Manila experience 2021 / The Health Sciences Journal

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION@#Almost half of adult Filipinos were unwilling to receive the COVID-19 vaccination in early 2021. This study aimed to describe the COVID-19 vaccination experience in the Greater Manila Area. @*METHODS@#An analytical cross-sectional study design was done where Filipinos aged 18-60 years old residing in the Greater Manila Area answered an online survey. Fisher’s exact test was used to compute p-values for the association between participants’ willingness or refusal to get vaccinated and their sociodemographic and clinical characteristics.@*RESULTS@#Among 1,248 respondents, 97.92% were willing to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The majority who refused strongly agreed that the vaccine could cause serious side effects (46.2%). Being a college graduate (OR = 3.03, p = 0.006) and high income (OR = 5.06, p = 0.003) had a statistically significant positive association with willingness to get vaccinated.@*CONCLUSION@#There are more individuals willing to get vaccinated and there is a statistically significant association between educational attainment and monthly income with vaccine willingness or refusal.