COVID-19 vaccine – Knowledge, Attitude and practices among medical students in Hyderabad

Abstract Today as a lot of COVID 19 vaccines are available and are currently used, we conducted a study to assess the knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of medical students in our college. An online survey was conducted through GOOGLE forms. In this study total participants are 155 medical students of which 28.4% (n=44) males and 71.6% (n=111) are females. Effectiveness of vaccine as perceived by participants in our study is 65.2%. The safety of the vaccine as considered by participants in this study is 55.5% In this study it was also noticed that when gender is compared with effectiveness and safety of vaccine both males and females felt equally it is effective as well as safe to take vaccine. There is a need to increase trust among our medical students. The elements that define and build trust must be understood and interventions like health awareness programs as role plays, talks on social media involving known personalities can be undertaken and crafted accordingly to improve the knowledge regarding COVID 19. Most of the seniors shared their readiness to take the vaccine than junior students. It was also found that seniors felt that they do not get enough information about vaccines when compared to juniors. The main source of information regarding COVID 19 vaccine for majority of the participants i.e., 71% (n=110) was through internet and social media and 16.8% (n=26) get from health care workers and the least number of participants got information from family and friends. Hence social media and internet can be used in a more appropriate way to remove vaccine hesitancy.