COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy among Clinical Medical Students in Enugu, South East Nigeria

Background. Clinical medical students are exposed to COVID-19 infection, thus it is imperative to achieve a high COVID-19 vaccination rate among this group of people.Objective. To determine the level of acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine and possible reasons for COVID-19 vaccine hesitance among medical students in Enugu, Nigeria.Methods. A cross-sectional study of 420 medical students at the two university teaching hospitals in Enugu. A p -value of less than .05 was considered statistically significant.Results. Only 36.1% of the respondents were willing to take the COVID-19 vaccine. Extra source of income was significantly associated with the acceptability of the COVID-19 vaccine among the students (p = .012).Conclusion. COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rate among medical students in Enugu appears to be very low. There is an urgent need for more advocacy and enlightenment to address the misconceptions and fears fueling the high vaccine hesitance rate seen in the study.