Knowledge, acceptance, and hesitancy of COVID-19 vaccine among health care workers in Nigeria

Introduction: Health Care Workers are major influencers in vaccination, thus their acceptance or hesitancy to the covid-19 vaccine would either aid its acceptance among the populace. Materials and Methods: The study was a cross-sectional survey using a self-administered questionnaire from December 15, 2020 to January 10, 2021 among healthcare providers living in Nigeria. The questionnaire was made up of segments that include demographics information, knowledge of the COVID-19 vaccine, its acceptance or hesitancy. The questionnaire was fashioned using Likert scale multiple questions of three options: YES, NO, and I Don’t know (No opinion) and Aware, Somewhat aware, and Not aware. Data collected were entered into the spreadsheet using IBM SPSS version 22.0 statistical software and analyzed with descriptive statistics. The results were presented as percentages, frequency, tables, and figures. Results: A total of 1094 responses were retrieved. The majority are males (56.67%) with 36.93% of the respondents aged 30–39 years. PHC Worker forms 14.90% of the respondents and social media was the greatest source of information. A percentage of 45.74% have no confidence in the vaccine and 39.68% rejecting, the majority been males (47.38%). The reasons for hesitancy are concerns of effectiveness, side effects, fear of the unknown, and safety. The highest rejection was by Dental Technicians (53.03%) while the highest acceptance was Medical consultants (72.22%). Conclusion: The study shows that about 3 out of every 10 health workers showed COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy for various reasons. The study recommends effective education, training, and public enlightenment to change the narrative