Lack of influence of social media on vaccine decision-making by university students in Ireland.

Vaccine hesitancy is a complex, context-specific issue that negatively impacts vaccine uptake. During the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine mis- and dis-information on social media negatively impacted on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. University students' beliefs and behaviors surrounding vaccine decision-making is less studied, but this population is important in disease transmission, vaccine uptake and effectiveness. Here, we surveyed students in a third-level Irish university, in September 2022, when pandemic restrictions had been removed, to primarily determine if their use of, and influence by, mainstream and social media correlated with their willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine or any vaccine. We analyzed 151 responses and found no significant correlation between students' willingness to receive either a COVID-19 vaccine or any vaccine and their use of social media. There were significant links between vaccine acceptance and a range of factors, namely accommodation type, social media behaviors, perceived exposure to vaccine mis- or dis-information and previous vaccine uptake. This study provides a preliminary insight into drivers of university student COVID-19 and general vaccine willingness. It provides initial data, in the context of post-pandemic restrictions, to support further development of interventions to enhance vaccine uptake in third-level students in Ireland.

Trends in drug- and vaccine-based dissolvable microneedle materials and methods of fabrication.

Microneedlepatches, also called microarray patches(MAP),are an emergingtechnology for deliveryand samplingof drugs, vaccines and other materials. This review focuses on the materials and methods used to fabricate dissolvable microneedles(DMN)for pharmaceutical use.We outlinethe relative use ofexcipients, active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and methods usedfor DMN fabrication. An extensive search of primary literature, up to April 2021,identified 328 papers under the key terms "dissolvable microneedles" or "polymeric microneedles".We based the classification of materials on pharmacopoeia definitions.The majority (76%) ofthe identifiedpublications examined licensed or model therapeutic small molecule drugs. Mostreports (58%)focused ondrugs or vaccinesthat are licensed for clinical use. Therelativeuse of excipientswith drug-containing compared to vaccine-containing DMN is discussed.Tenpolymers and sugarswereused for both drug and vaccine DMN.Themost frequentmethods to produce DMNwerecasting into moulds using centrifugationorvacuum filling. Novel methods reported include centrifugal lithography and 3D printing. This review provides insight intomaterialselection,thefeasibilityofproductionmethodsat industrial scaleand outlines considerations for novel DMN patch fabrication.