ABSTRACT
Coronavirus Disease-19;Vaccine Hesitancy;Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2, Adverse Effects INTRODUCTION Vaccination is one of the most successful public health interventions of modern medicine. [4] Rapidly rising repeated waves of infections with increasing morbidity and mortality numbers along with flood of ever increasing "infodemic" resulted by use of social media apps such as WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook are associated with spread anxiety and fear about the COVID-19 pandemic among the population. [5] Following the emergency use authorization of couple of COVID-19 vaccines in the western world, the Indian authority subject expert committee of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization met on 1st and 2nd January 2021 and made recommendations in respect of the proposal for Restricted Emergency Approval of two COVID-19 virus vaccines of M/s Serum Institute of India and M/s Bharat Biotech. [9]" Vaccine hesitancy is said to be present when vaccine acceptance in a specific setting is lower than would be expected, given the availability of vaccine services. [...]vaccine hesitancy is a socio-behavioral phenomenon- which is vaccine and context-specific and measured against an expectation of reaching a specific vaccination coverage goal, given the immunization services available.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has spread very fast worldwide as a pandemic causing unprecedented morbidity and mortality. Most countries in the world have undergone emergency lockdown in an attempt to flatten the curve and reduce the load on healthcare systems. OBJECTIVE: This study was done to assess the knowledge, attitude, and perception toward the disease among the home-bound Indian population during the lockdown. METHODOLOGY: This was a questionnaire-based descriptive cross-sectional study conducted online. Compilation and assessment of the online data in the form of responses were done as for descriptive studies. RESULTS: Among the 320 participants of the study, the awareness about the epidemiological features, including the signs and symptoms of the disease, was very good (more than 99% in some aspects). The attitude toward the measures for prevention of disease at home and outside was also very good (more than 97%) in some aspects, with a scope of improvement in a few others. Only one-third had the knowledge of online (e-consultation) services floated by governments and hospitals for medical advice. Ten percent had the potential to misuse drugs as prophylaxis. Most of the participants perceived that they had no predictable idea about the shape of disease epidemiology in the near future and only hoped for things to get better. CONCLUSION: This study reflects that aggressive awareness drives have played an important role in the dissemination of knowledge and the development of informed positive attitude toward COVID-19. Few gaps in knowledge and practices related to disease epidemiology, safe practices, mobile app for tracking and the availability of e-resources for medical advice, still remain. These should be addressed more aggressively, to strengthen the efforts to overcome this unprecedented crisis.