ASSESSING THE POSSIBILITY OF VACCINE HESITANCY TOWARDS THE IMPENDING COVID-19 CRISIS: A COMMUNITY PHARMACISTS PERSPECTIVE

Jannina E. Diño*, Jusminne L. Punzalan and Hannah Joy M. Reyes

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused devastation across the earth from the start of the year 2020. Coronavirus (COVID-19), a viral disease caused by SARS-COV2 emerged from Wuhan City, China was declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be an international public health emergency because of its rapid widespread throughout the world. The WHO promotes several guidelines that can prevent the spread of the virus, and one of these is vaccination. While majority of the public adheres to immunization, there are still few who neglects vaccination and these few still provide a challenge to the public health. This study aimed to acquire data from the perspective of registered pharmacists working in community setting. As the most accessible health care professional, a community pharmacist’s duty is to educate people about the benefits of vaccination and encourage neglectful individuals to acquire active immunity without coercion. The researchers selected respondents based on characteristics of a population and the objectives of the study using the purposive sampling method. A 40-item 5-point Likert scale survey questionnaire was utilized to assess Perceived Cost, Perceived Safety, and Perceived Effectiveness among the respondents. Results showed that respondents are willing to purchase (should there be a time when the vaccines are not free) and be vaccinated with the COVID- 19 vaccine due to its perceived fair cost; and perceived safety and effectiveness. This result may be considered a steppingstone towards achieving herd immunity, through better information dissemination by the community pharmacists.

Keywords: Vaccine Hesitancy, COVID-19, Community Pharmacists, Perceived Cost, Perceived Safety, Perceived Effectiveness.