JPSIM Journal of Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine J Pak Soc Intern Med 2709-8729 2710-0804 Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine 10.70302/jpsim.v3i2.2234 jpsim.v3i2.2234 STUDENT CORNER COVID-19 Vaccine its Perception and Hesitancy among the General Adult Population in Pakistan Karim Muhammad Abdullah Drabdullah1010@gmail.com * Talat Noor Fatima Ahmad Shahzaib Mumtaz Hassan King Edward Medical University, Lahore, KRL Hospital, Islamabad. *Correspondence: Muhammad Abdullah Karim (Drabdullah1010@gmail.com) 15 06 2022 2022 3 2 165 169 07 01 2022 02 04 2022 Copyright © 2022 The Author(s) 2022 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objective

To determine the acceptability of COVID-19 vaccine among the general adult population in Pakistan and determine the causes of hesitancy regarding its administration.

 Methodology

An internet-based cross-sectional survey was designed and conducted by including adult population in Pakistan (n = 1044; aged ≥ 18 years). A detailed questionnaire in English language was circulated on social media platforms along with snowball sampling for diversity of results.

 Results

Among the 1044 responses, 828 (79.3%) were willing to get COVID-19 vaccination once available and 20.7% rejected being vaccinated. Vaccine acceptance was more in the elderly and male gender (87.3%). Acceptance rate was also higher in highly educated people as compared to other population. The reason for rejecting vaccine in most people was lack of sufficient information (18.9%) and safety concerns (15.6%).

 Conclusion

On an overall basis, 79.3% of the study partakers showed inclination towards getting vaccinated against COVID-19. An overall high acceptance rate was detected which favors a successful and effective nationwide vaccination program in Pakistan. As acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine will prove to be of pivotal importance in the control of COVID-19 pandemic, aspects related to low vaccine acceptance must be instantly addressed by public health authorities.

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