Lim Lee Jin, Lim Ashley J W, Fong Kevin K, Lee Caroline G
Department of Biochemistry, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117596, Singapore.
NUS Graduate School, National University of Singapore, Singapore 119077, Singapore.
Vaccines (Basel). 2021 Oct 6;9(10):1141. doi: 10.3390/vaccines9101141.
As the COVID-19 pandemic rages unabated, and with more infectious variants, vaccination may offer a way to transit out of strict restrictions on physical human interactions to curb the virus spread and prevent overwhelming the healthcare system. However, vaccine hesitancy threatens to significantly impact our progress towards achieving this. It is thus important to understand the sentiments regarding vaccination for different segments of the population to facilitate the development of effective strategies to persuade these groups. Here, we surveyed the COVID-19 vaccination sentiments among a highly educated group of graduate students from the National University of Singapore (NUS). Graduate students who are citizens of 54 different countries, mainly from Asia, pursue studies in diverse fields, with 32% expressing vaccine hesitancy. Citizenship, religion, country of undergraduate/postgraduate studies, exposure risk and field of study are significantly associated with vaccine sentiments. Students who are Chinese citizens or studied in Chinese Universities prior to joining NUS are more hesitant, while students of Indian descent or studied in India are less hesitant about vaccination. Side effects, safety issues and vaccine choice are the major concerns of the hesitant group. Hence, this study would facilitate the development of strategies that focus on these determinants to enhance vaccine acceptance.
随着新冠疫情肆虐且出现了更具传染性的变种，接种疫苗或许能提供一条途径，使我们摆脱对人际身体接触的严格限制，从而遏制病毒传播并防止医疗系统不堪重负。然而，疫苗犹豫情绪可能会严重影响我们在实现这一目标方面取得的进展。因此，了解不同人群对疫苗接种的看法，对于制定有效的策略来说至关重要，以便说服这些群体。在此，我们对新加坡国立大学（NUS）一群受过高等教育的研究生进行了新冠疫苗接种看法的调查。这些研究生是来自54个不同国家的公民，主要来自亚洲，所学专业各异，其中32%表示对接种疫苗持犹豫态度。国籍、宗教、本科/研究生就读国家、接触风险和研究领域与疫苗看法显著相关。中国公民或在加入新加坡国立大学之前在中国大学就读的学生更为犹豫，而印度裔学生或在印度就读的学生对接种疫苗的犹豫程度较低。副作用、安全问题和疫苗选择是持犹豫态度群体的主要担忧。因此，本研究将有助于制定聚焦于这些决定因素的策略，以提高疫苗接种的接受度。
