Factors Contributing to COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy among Taxi Drivers in Juba City-South Sudan

Abstract

Introduction: Over the past few decades, vaccine hesitancy emerged as a major public health problem leading to outbreaks of communicable infections. While the development of a vaccine against COVID-19 was eagerly awaited by most of the communities at the beginning of the pandemic, skeptical voices are now becoming louder, and rising evidence shows mixed patterns with a worldwide rather decreasing trend of acceptance. The reasons for vaccine refusal are complex and differ according to geographical and cultural context. Objective: To find out factors contributing to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among taxi drivers in Juba City-South Sudan. Methodology: This research was a descriptive cross-sectional study designs which used quantitative research method. The study was conducted between February-May 2022. It targeted all the taxi drivers offering taxi service in formal/designated taxi park. To ensure better representation, all the designated/formal taxi parks in the three (3) payams of Juba City (Juba, Kator and Munuki) were purposely selected for the study and the numbers of the respondents were assigned equally to the three (3) taxi park. Total sample size of 384 was used and about 128 taxi drivers were interviewed in each taxi park. The daily registration lists of the taxi in the taxi parks were used as a sampling frame. Drivers were selected at a random from the sample frame using simple random sampling technique until the required number was met. A Self-administered close ended questionnaire was used to collect the data and responses from the questionnaires were manually validated and entered in excel spread sheet version 2019. It was analyzed and presented inform of tables, graphs, and pie-charts. Results: About 116 (30%) of the drivers were above the age of 35 years. Majority of the participants 376 (98%) heard about COVID-19 vaccine. Of those who heard about the COVID-19 vaccine, 201 (28%) stated that they heard through social media. When asked on their readiness to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, majority of the respondent 256 (67%) specified that they would not accept to be vaccinated if COVID-19 vaccine was offered to them. Amongst those who refused to be vaccinated, majority of the respondent 180 (26%) reported that they were concern on the adverse effects of the vaccine. Conclusion: Vaccine hesitancy is a major threat to curving down the COVID-19 pandemic. This research findings showed that majority of the respondent heard about COVID-19 vaccine using social media. Furthermore, this research established that majority of the taxi drivers would not accept to be vaccinated when the COVID-19 vaccine was offered to them due to fears of adverse effects of the vaccine; others were concern of acquiring COVID-19 infection from the vaccine itself