Attitude and acceptance toward COVID-19 vaccines among Kabul city's residents: a cross sectional study

Objective: The present study aimed to assess the attitude and perception of Kabul city's residents toward COVID-19 vaccines hesitancy and acceptance. Methods: Applying a cross-sectional study design, the data was collected from 665 participants in Kabul city using a predesigned validated questionnaire. For statistical analysis, Spearman correlation, chi-square, and logistic regression techniques were used. Results: Although the vaccine availability was limited for the public during the survey period, 70.5% of the participants were willing to receive COVID-19 vaccines. Meanwhile, 49.2% participants were concerned about the COVID-19 vaccines side effects. The presence of positive COVID-19 cases among family members and friends (OR: 2.7), presence of fears during COVID-19 pandemic (OR: 4.4) and beliefs that vaccine has important and vital role in people's protection against COVID-19 (OR: 5.3), increase the likelihood of vaccine acceptance among the participants. On the other hand, participant's mistrust of the safety of COVID-19 vaccines (OR: 0.21) and disbelief on ministry of public health "MoPH" advice about COVID-19 vaccine safety and efficiency (OR: 0.27) decrease the odds of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among the respondents. In addition, a strong correlation was found between vaccine attitude and vaccine acceptance scales (Spearman p=0.52, p<0.001). Conclusion: Although majority of the participants were willing to receive the COVID-19 vaccines, due to high level of participant's concerns about COVID-19 vaccines-related side effects, a great proportion of the respondents were hesitate to receive the COVID-19 vaccines. Accordingly, public awareness about COVID-19 vaccines must be increased to counteract incorrect and misleading propaganda about vaccination and immunization.

Government Policy Response to COVID-19 and Stock Market Return: The Case of Iran

In this chapter, we use four indices showing government intervention in facing COVID-19, including stringency index, government response index, containment and health index, and economic support index. The stock market return of Iran from 22 Feb 2020 to 12 June 2021 is our dependent variable. Using a threshold regression, we show that government intervention indices have different effects on the stock market return in Iran, so that when the growth rate of confirmed cases of COVID-19 is less than 0.06%, government intervention cannot affect the stock market return. However, in a situation with a higher growth rate of confirmed cases of COVID-19, stringency index, government response index, and containment and health index reduce the return, but the economic support index increases return. In summary, first, the impact of government intervention on the stock market in Iran depends on the growth rate of confirmed cases. Second, the government faces a trade-off between citizens’ health and stock market return during the high incidence rate of COVID-19. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.