Cancer patients and internal medicine patients attitude towards COVID-19 vaccination in Poland.

Background The initial approval of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) marked a milestone in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The increased public debate about the vaccine development process and vaccine side effects has activated the anti-vaccine community, which has begun to spread conspiracy theories about vaccine safety. Objectives Our study is the first to investigate the awareness of Polish patients suffering from various chronic diseases, mainly cancer, about vaccination against SARS-CoV-2. Material and methods An anonymous survey was made available from November 2020 to February 2021 to representatives of patient organizations through social media (Facebook) and to patients in the Chemotherapy Department of the Clinical Hospital in Poznan. The survey was completed by 836 patients. The majority of the survey respondents had cancer (77%, n = 644), and almost 1/5 of the respondents indicated hypertension (15.7%, n = 131) as well as depression and/or anxiety disorders (11.1%, n = 93). Results Less than half of the respondents (43.5%, n = 364) believed that SARS-CoV-2 vaccines were safe (40.4%, n = 260, among cancer patients; 53.9%, n = 104, among patients with other medical conditions). More than half of the respondents (60.5%, n = 506) intended to be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 (58.8%, n = 378, among cancer patients; 66.3%, n = 128, among patients with other medical conditions). Fear of vaccine complications and lack of belief in vaccine effectiveness were prevalent among both cancer patients and patients with other medical conditions. Conclusions The vast majority of cancer and medical patients wanted to be vaccinated against COVID-19. More than half of the respondents did not believe that the COVID-19 vaccine would be safe for them. Education of cancer and medical patients on the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine, as well as the use of additional protective measures against infection, is an extremely important element of prevention during the COVID-19 pandemic.