Social media and hesitancy towards SARS-COV2 vaccination among the Tunisian health professionals

Introduction: Health professionals are the leaders of the war against the SARS-COV2 pandemic. Their adherence to the vaccination against this new virus is crucial to ensure a sufficient coverage in the community. Objectives: To evaluate hesitancy towards SARS-COV2 vaccines among the Tunisian health professionals and their use of information sources about these vaccines. Methods: A cross-sectional study was led online between the 7th and the 21th of January 2021 among Tunisian health professionals. A number of at least 460 participants were required. Data were collected anonymously using a pre-established and pre-tested questionnaire recorded in a free Google form. Results: A total of 493 responses were obtained. The mean age of participants was 37.4 (± 9.5) years. Females represented 70.2% of participants. The rate of hesitancy towards COVID-19 vaccines was 51.9%. Lack of information about the COVID19 vaccines was reported by 81.7% of participants. Social media were the most used source of information by them (66.9%) while 7.9% of them used the national information site for health professionals. Use of social media more than two hours per day was positively associated with hesitancy towards vaccination against SARS-COV2 with an OR of 2.5 (95% CI: 1.5-4.2) contrary to the use of the national website for information for health professionals which was negatively associated with hesitancy with an OR of 0.5 (95% CI:0.2-0.9). Conclusion: The current information strategy should be reinforced in Tunisia. Social media may represent a good channel for disseminating valid messages and tackling misinformation. Engaging health care professionals in social media to counter the vaccine related misinformation would boost the national information strategy.