Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Among Arab Americans - Survey
By: Omar Mansour / Arab America Contributing Writer
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a very stressful time for individuals, families, and institutions and efforts to get the population vaccinated are still underway, but obstacles, such as vaccine hesitancy or straight out refusal are still very present. This survey is designed to obtain more information about COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy among Arab Americans. The survey will take approximately 2 minutes to complete and your individual answers will remain confidential. No individual identifiers are collected.
Mira Kheil, a researcher for the study tells Arab America that this study is actually an expansion of a previous one that was conducted on Arab American healthcare professionals. In that study, researchers from the Wayne State University School of Medicine found that people were more likely to be vaccine hesitant if they have declined an influenza vaccine over the past 5 years, they make less than 150,000$ annually and if they are allied healthcare professionals (other than physicians and medical students).
The Arab American population constitutes one of the fastest growing ethnic minorities in the US and is understudied due to the fact that they are not classified as a separate ethnic entity. Vaccine hesitancy is the next great barrier for public health officials and health care providers in the wake of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The factors that contribute to hesitancy can vary between communities and may vary between ethnicities. Identifying vaccine hesitancy is the first step before responding with education and targeting resources to these populations in order to improve uptake of the vaccine.
The current study by Wayne State University School of Medicine researchers is exploring the attitudes towards the COVID vaccine among the general Arab American population in hopes that the knowledge accrued from this study assists policy makers in making healthcare policy decisions that impact the health and welfare of the Arab American community, especially related to preventive healthcare decisions/programs.
You can click this link to take the survey yourself. The survey will take approximately 2 minutes to complete and your individual answers will remain confidential. No individual identifiers are collected.
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