Objective: Coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19) vaccination is the game-changing approach that tops all other strategies to contain the pandemic spread. A growing interest has been raised to heterologous prime-boost and booster COVID-19 vaccination to tackle vaccine shortage and to increase the vaccine's immunogenicity. This study aimed to evaluate the willingness and acceptance of Jordanians to receive heterologous prime-boost COVID-19 vaccination and vaccine boosters.
Materials and methods: A web-based cross-sectional study was conducted using a validated online questionnaire. Adult Jordanian participants were recruited using several social media platforms. The questionnaire link was randomly posted by researchers on public groups in Jordan. Participant's demographics, medical history, knowledge of mixed and booster COVID-19 vaccination and their willingness to receive them were obtained and analyzed.
Results: Approximately 50.5% and 49.3% of the respondents stated former knowledge of the mixed and booster COVID-19 vaccination, respectively. Approximately 50% of respondents acknowledged that the side effects could preclude them from taking mixed and booster vaccines, and 45.3% responded that taking a third dose of the vaccine would increase the side effects. The respondents with previous history of COVID-19 and influenza vaccination were more likely to agree on mixed vaccines compared to those not vaccinated (29.5% vs. 6.5%, p <0.0001; 38.0% vs. 24.5%, p=0.0078, respectively). Moreover, both previous history of COVID-19 and seasonal influenza vaccine was an encouraging response for acceptance of mixed and booster vaccines when compared to those who did not receive the vaccines (54.5% vs. 11.3%; p<0.0001, 69.0% vs. 45.5%; p <0.0001, respectively).
Conclusions: The current study showed that nearly half of the respondents were familiar with COVID-19 mixed and booster vaccine programs; however, a high percentage still expressed reticence to receive the mixed vaccines. We consider these results to emphasize the importance and need of awareness campaigns that accentuate the safety profile of such updated vaccination programs.