A National Survey to Assess the COVID-19 Vaccine-Related Conspiracy Beliefs, Acceptability, Preference, and Willingness to Pay among the General Population of Pakistan

Arshad, Muhammad Subhan; Hussain, Iltaf; Mahmood, Tahir; Hayat, Khezar; Majeed, Abdul; Imran, Imran; Saeed, Hamid; Iqbal, Muhammad Omer; Uzair, Muhammad; Rehman, Anees ur; Ashraf, Waseem; Usman, Areeba; Syed, Shahzada Khurram; Akbar, Muqarrab; Chaudhry, Muhammad Omer; Ramzan, Basit; Islam, Muhammad; Saleem, Muhammad Usman; Shakeel, Waleed; Iqbal, Iram; Hashmi, Furqan; Rasool, Muhammad Fawad

The current study aims to assess the beliefs of the general public in Pakistan towards conspiracy theories, acceptance, willingness to pay, and preference for the COVID-19 vaccine. A cross-sectional study was conducted through an online self-administered questionnaire during January 2021. The Chi-square test or Fisher exact test was utilized for statistical data analysis. A total of 2158 respondents completed the questionnaire, among them 1192 (55.2%) were male with 23.87 (SD: ±6.23) years as mean age. The conspiracy beliefs circulating regarding the COVID-19 vaccine were believed by 9.3% to 28.4% of the study participants. Among them, 1040 (48.2%) agreed to vaccinate on its availability while 934 (43.3%) reported the Chinese vaccine as their preference. The conspiracy beliefs of the participants were significantly associated with acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine. The existence of conspiracy beliefs and low vaccine acceptance among the general population is a serious threat to successful COVID-19 vaccination.