Abstract
Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a sever acute respiratory disease. COVID-19 continues to have medical, economic, education and social consequences worldwide. Iraq used the following vaccines; Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sinopharm and Moderna. The adverse effects of these vaccines and other unfounded rumors regarding the safety of these vaccines among our population, has affected the vaccination take up substantially in Duhok governorate.
Methods: This study was conducted using an online-based questionnaires distributed among the students at university of Duhok (UOD). A total of 1601 participants in this study,919 were vaccinated students and 682 were non-vaccinated students. In order to gain specific information from both vaccinated and non-vaccinated students, two different forms were developed. In general, vaccinated students’ questionnaires involved 20 questions and consisted of four main parts while, the questionaries’ for non-vaccinated students involved 17 questions and consisted of three main parts.
Results: Vaccinated UOD students showed a significant difference (p ≥0.01) in their knowledge’s and acceptance to COVID-19 vaccines, compared to non-vaccinated students. AstraZeneca it seems to be far less safe than other vaccines, with highest side effective ratio (94.6%) followed by Pfizer (78.5%) compared to Sinopharm vaccines (52%). The most common symptoms post vaccination were pain in injection (37.8%), muscle pain (34.9%) and fever (34.2%), after first dose.
Conclusion: Vaccinated students significantly shows better knowledge and acceptance than others. AstraZeneca was the most fear one and Sinopharm was the safest one. The most common symptoms post vaccination were pain in injection, muscle pain and fever
