COVID-19 Vaccine Knowledge and Attitude Among Healthcare Workers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Background On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) proclaimed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) a pandemic. COVID-19 can result in asymptomatic infection, severe pneumonia, and death. In this study, healthcare workers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, were asked to reflect on their knowledge of and attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine. Methods Online anonymous polling of healthcare professionals in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, was done. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the respondents' demographic information and knowledge of and attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine were gathered through a questionnaire. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Results The knowledge of the responders for each vaccine is as follows: Pfizer-BioNTech, 96.1%; AstraZeneca-Oxford, 66.1%; Moderna, 56.9%; and Johnson & Johnson's Janssen, 18.2%. A small percentage of responders (5.7%) believe that COVID-19 vaccination may alter their DNA, while 70% believe it can prevent them from getting sick with COVID-19 infection. Half of the responders had a wrong opinion of COVID-19 vaccinations. Conclusion The findings imply that improving healthcare workers' knowledge of vaccines and changing attitudes toward vaccination may increase vaccine acceptability. This would involve addressing the respondents' concerns about vaccine side effects and their general mistrust of vaccine benefits.