TY - JOUR AU - Rafa, Elżbieta AU - Majoch, Monika AU - Siekierczak, Sylwia AU - Węgrzyn, Izabella AU - Wenecka-Lipka, Beata PY - 2023/02/03 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Vaccinations against COVID-19 in the opinion of medical services workers and the general social opinion JF - Journal of Education, Health and Sport JA - J Educ Health Sport VL - 13 IS - Supplement Issue 2 SE - Articles DO - 10.12775/JEHS.2023.13.S2.004 UR - https://apcz.umk.pl/JEHS/article/view/42363 SP - 44-60 AB - <p><strong>Introduction</strong></p><p>This study was devoted to getting to know the public opinion, including representatives of medical professions, regarding the presented views on vaccination against Covid-19, allowing to determine the most important issues related to the lack of acceptance of this preparation.</p><p><strong>Aim</strong></p><p>The aim of this study was to find out the social opinion regarding vaccination against Covid-19 (including the aspect of vaccination obligation, incidence of adverse post-vaccination reactions, vaccination among children and pregnant women) as well as the reasons for the attitude towards the fact of accepting the vaccine or rejecting the possibility of being vaccinated.</p><p><strong>Material and methods</strong></p><p>The study was conducted in a group of 510 people - practicing the medical profession and not related to the health service, who were over 18 years old. The method of a diagnostic survey was used with the use of a proprietary questionnaire containing single and multiple choice questions, the survey was conducted on-line using a Google form in October 2022.</p><p><strong>Results</strong></p><p>In the study group, the vaccination rate was 62.2%, women and medical professionals were more likely to be vaccinated. The decision to be vaccinated was mainly based on the desire to protect themselves against the severe course of a possible illness - 30.4% of respondents and to protect themselves and others against Covid-19 - 26.5%. In the represented group, unvaccinated persons accounted for 37.8% respectively, they did not decide to vaccinate mainly because of the belief that they were not protected against the disease - 19.8% of respondents, perceiving COVID-19 as a seasonal infection - 19.0%, and fear of long-term complications - 18.6%. The decision to vaccinate was accompanied by i.a. feelings such as: slight fear (36.3%), fear/anxiety (10.4%), strong fear/anxiety (3.7%). The study group was also asked about adverse post-vaccination reactions, 25.1% of the surveyed experienced complications, most of them did not report adverse post-vaccination reactions, and the percentage of reported cases was 1.6%. The vast majority of respondents - 74.5% were in favor of the lack of obligation to vaccinate. Opinions expressed about the safety of vaccinations: rather yes - 24%, rather not - 22% and definitely not - 21%, a significant part had no opinion - 24.3%.</p><p><strong>Conclusions</strong></p><p>This study confirms the significant problem of skepticism towards Covid-19 vaccination, as well as the high percentage of people expressing opposition to the obligation to vaccinate and the perception of the media campaign as propaganda, which confirms the existence of a significant social division regarding the acceptance of vaccination. The perception of vaccine safety is related to the knowledge of adverse post-vaccination reactions, but the problem observed among respondents is the fact that the number of reported adverse reactions is negligible.</p> ER -