Prevalence of Receiving COVID-19 Vaccination amongHealthcare Professionals during the Pandemic COVID-19in The U.S. and Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

Objectives: COVID-19 causes severe pneumonia leading to increased hospitalization and a high mortality rate.COVID-19 can transmit easily via respiratory droplets and contact with contaminated surfaces. The worldwideeffects of COVID-19 have caused people to get a COVID-19 vaccine, wear a mask, stay at least 6 feet apart, avoidcrowds, and wash hands to protect against COVID-19. The COVID-19 vaccine is essential to prevent infection and protect humans from getting high risk complications. Healthcare professionals are essential employees treatingpatients with and without COVID-19;these front-line workers have priority to get the COVID-19 vaccination. In thisstudy, the researchers created a survey with the aim to examine the rate of those receiving the COVID-19vaccination among healthcare professionals in the United States and Saudi Arabia. Methods: A questionnaire was created and sent to a target population who were front-line healthcare professionalsin the United States and Saudi Arabia between January 28 and February 2, 2021. The survey assessed theindividual's intention to get the COVID-19 vaccination. The questionnaire contained ?Yes? and ?No? questions, including providing reasons for their answers. The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics. Results: Sixty healthcare professionals responded to the survey, female 51.7% (n=31), male 46.7% (n=28), and gender not identified 1.7% (n=1). Most responders (50.0%, n=30) were between 30 and 49 years old. The majority of responders were radiologic technologists (31.7%, n=19) and the second most was radiology specialist (18.3%,n=11). Approximately 75.0% (n=45) of responders had received a Flu vaccination. Only 26.7% (n=16) had received the COVID-19 vaccination. Approximately 73.3% (n=44) of responders had not received COVID-19 vaccination. Thecommon reason for not getting the COVID-19 vaccination was that the vaccine was not available (53.3%, n=32).However, approximately 13.33% (n=8) of the participants reported that they did not intent to get COVID-19vaccination. Various reasons to avoid getting the COVID-19 vaccination included insufficient information (8.33%,n=5), no information for Parkinson patient (1.7%, n=1), potential pregnancy (1.7%, n=1), and preferring to maintainh and sensitizing, mask wearing, and social distancing (1.7%, n=1). Surprisingly, 63.3% (n=38) of respondersreported no fear of being infected by COVID-19. Approximately 63.16% (n=24) of healthcare workers from SaudiArabia reported no fear of being infected, while 34.21% (n=13) of healthcare workers from the U.S. demonstrated nofear of being infected COVID-19. Conclusions: The prevalence of getting the COVID-19 vaccination was low. The vaccine distribution for all front-line healthcare professionals seems incomplete. Moreover, vaccine availability is quite variable between countries.At the time of collecting data, access to COVID-19 vaccine was much higher in the U.S. than in Saudi Arabia. At thesame time, fear from getting infected was significantly lower in Saudi Arabia than in the U.S. The low rate of fear of becoming infected with COVID-19 needs to be further investigated.