Factors Involved in the Acceptance of the SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine, in a Latin American Country: A Remote Cross-Sectional Study, Using a COVID-19 Vaccination Questionnaire

Background: The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had devastating effects all over the world. Particularly Mexico, continues being hit hard and has been identified as one of the highest countries with an infection to death rate in Latin-America. Technological advances have made it possible to develop novel vaccines in record time, leading to fear and misinformation around it. Methods: We did a cross-sectional study using a cohort of 1512 participants, using a COVID-19 vaccine questionnaire focusing on identifying key factors: fear of infection, xenophobia, vaccine adverse effects, vaccination hesitancy in children. We further related them to sociodemographic profile, general vaccination posture (interests in researching information, previous vaccination of influenza, etc.), and the economic perception it would have on the country. Findings: The general posture on vaccination correlates (p<0·050) to mild fear of COVID-19 infection, moderate xenophobia, and hesitancy towards children vaccination, willingness to get COVID-19 vaccine, previous influenza vaccination, perception the vaccine could help the country’s economy, occupation, gender, age, active research of vaccine information. Interestingly, there was no major concern towards vaccination adverse effects. Vaccination does not seem dependent on religion, cohabitation, education, comorbidities, having a previous COVID-19 diagnosis or knowing someone with a positive COVID-19 diagnosis. Interpretation: Our results showed, there is high acceptance and great desire to get vaccinated (87·8%) amongst the Mexican population. Therefore, the analyzed variables could be used by health authorities or policy makers to help in the modelling of vaccination programs to further address vaccine hesitancy. Funding: This research received no external funding. Declaration of Interest: None to declare. Ethical Approval: The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and the protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of Hospital La Mision, Monterrey NL. Mexico. Protocol #VAC-CAMCVC-01