Covid-19 vaccine acceptance: Beliefs and barriers associated with vaccination among the general population in india

ABSTRACT

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a novel zoonotic coronavirus that emerged from Wuhan, China. Development of SARS-CoV-2 specific vaccine is considered as the only solution that could control this pandemic. However, the success of COVID-19 vaccination programme will be dependent on the development of effective and safer vaccines and also on the public acceptance which in turn reliant on the beliefs and perception towards the vaccine. Therefore, this study was aimed to analyse the beliefs and barriers associated with COVID-19 vaccination among the general population in India. The study conducted using an online self-administered questionnaire that was distributed among the general population of India during the month of October 2020. The online questionnaire addressed several variables including the socio-demographic parameters, beliefs toward COVID-19 vaccine/vaccination, COVID-19 vaccine acceptance, potential barriers that may prevent from being vaccinated and factors that can improve COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. Among the 351 participants, 55% believed that the COVID-19 vaccination will be safe while only 46.2% believed that it will be effective. Majority of the participants (86.3%) were planning to get COVID-19 vaccination, whereas 13.7% admitted hesitancy. However, only 65.8% of the participants responded that they will receive vaccination as soon as possible whenever the vaccine is available. The study also identified that the. © 2020, Editorial board of Journal of Experimental Biology and Agricultural Sciences. All rights reserved.