Assessing the knowledge and skill of vaccination staff at Adult Vaccination Counters for COVID-19 vaccines: Simulated client method

The Government of Pakistan has established Adult Vaccination Counters (AVCs) to immunize general population with COVID-19 vaccine. Different brands of COVID-19 vaccines have different protocols. It is important that the knowledge and skills of the vaccination staff at AVCs should be accurate. To assess this, a cross-sectional study was conducted in all 15 AVCs at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s provincial capital in May 2021, using the simulated client approach. Structured open-ended and simulated scenario-based questions were used to collect data from the vaccination staff of AVCs. This study showed that 53.3% of the AVCs had at most three out of four brands of COVID-19 vaccines. 60% of the AVCs did not have the mechanism to track client’s vaccine first dose, date, and brand. Only 66.7% of the AVCs had a complete knowledge of all the available vaccines. 86.7% and 80% of the AVCs knew the correct duration and administration of the same brand of COVID-19 vaccine’s second dose respectively. At the client’s end, 6.7% were aware about the brand of administered COVID-19 vaccine. 46.7% were advised about the date of the second shot of vaccination. Only 13.3% of the clients were informed about the procedure of getting an official vaccination certificate. It was concluded that the knowledge and skill of the vaccination staff at AVCs is inadequate. Every vaccine has a different protocol in terms of number of doses and duration. AVCs must have a tracking system to inoculate the second dose with the same brand as the first dose. There is a need for rigorous monitoring and training of the COVID-19 vaccination staff on various protocols of vaccine to prevent losing public’s trust.

COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in Eight European Countries: Prevalence, Determinants and Heterogeneity

Vaccine hesitancy poses a major obstacle to containing COVID-19. Previous experimental studies of communication strategies for promoting COVID-19 vaccine uptake have been conducted in a single country each, often testing strategies that have differed from those studied in other countries. On the few occasions when two or more single-country studies have tested similar treatments, they have yielded inconsistent findings. For example, highlighting pro-social benefits increased participants’ willingness to get vaccinated in the UK and the US, but had no effect in France and the UK, thus calling into question the often implied generalisability of previous findings. We experimentally assess the effectiveness of different information treatments across eight European countries and examine heterogeneity in the willingness to get vaccinated against COVID-19, as well as in the perceptions of the different vaccines available, within and across countries. We reveal striking differences in COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy across countries, ranging from 5.5% of the adult population in Spain to 50.94% in Bulgaria. The main barriers to vaccine acceptance were fears regarding the quality and safety of the vaccines, as well as mistrust in government. Receiving information emphasising (i) COVID-19 risk reduction through vaccination, (ii) non-medical benefits of a vaccination certificate, and (iii) hedonistic benefits significantly increases vaccination willingness in Germany, but only the vaccination certificate message significantly increases willingness in the UK. No information treatment has significant effects in any other country. A machine-learning technique, model-based recursive partitioning, reveals that the effectiveness of some information treatments is highly heterogeneous among subsets of the population, with adverse effects for Spanish, German and Italian participants without active employment. The heterogeneity of vaccine hesitancy and responses to different messages suggests that health authorities should avoid one-size-fits-all messages and instead tailor vaccination campaigns to their specific target populations, with special care to more disadvantaged populations.

Perceptions of immunity and vaccination certificates among the general population of Geneva, Switzerland.

As of June 2021, the European Union (EU) and Switzerland have published information about the introduction of COVID certificates in order to facilitate the safe free movement of their citizens. With implementation underway, little is known about the public perception of such certificates with potential differences in acceptability among individuals. In March 2021, a self-administered online questionnaire was proposed to all individuals 18 years and older participating in the longitudinal follow-up of population-based seroprevalence studies in Geneva, Switzerland. The questionnaire covered aspects of individual and collective benefits, while allowing participants to select contexts in which vaccination certificates should be presented. Results were presented as the proportion of individuals agreeing or disagreeing with the implementation of vaccination certificates, selecting specific contexts where certificates should be presented, and agreeing or disagreeing with the potential risks related to certificates. Logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios for factors associated with certificate non-acceptance. Overall, 4,056 individuals completed the questionnaire (response rate 77.6%; mean age 53.3, standard deviation 14.4 years; 56.1% were women). About 61.0% of participants agreed or strongly agreed that a vaccination certificate was necessary in certain contexts; and 21.6% believed there was no context where vaccination certificates should be presented. Contexts where a majority of participants perceived a vaccination certificate should be presented included jobs where others would be at risk of COVID-related complications (60.7%), jobs where employees would be at risk of getting infected (58.7%), or to be exempt from quarantine when traveling abroad (56.1%). Contexts where fewer individuals perceived the need for vaccination certificates to be presented were participation in large gatherings (36.9%), access to social venues (35.5%), or sharing the same workspace (21.5%). Younger age, an absence of willingness to get vaccinated, and an absence of belief in vaccination as an important step in surmounting the pandemic were factors associated with certificate non-acceptance. This large population-based study showed that the general adult population in Geneva, Switzerland, agreed with the implementation of vaccination certificates in work-related and travel-related contexts. However, this solution was perceived as unnecessary for access to large gatherings or social venues, or to share the same workspace. Differences were seen with gender, age, education, socio-economic status, and vaccination willingness and perception, highlighting the importance of taking personal and sociodemographic variations into consideration when predicting acceptance of such certificates.

Compliance of Legal Regulation of the Republic of Lithuania with the EU Resolution on COVID-19 Vaccines

The aim of this article is to evaluate compliance of the legal regulation of the Republic of Lithuania with the EU resolution on Covid-19 vaccines. The main goal is to investigate the government implemented extraordinary legal measures to control the pandemic situation in Lithuania by processing the goal of planned COVID-19 vaccination quantities and to evaluate their compliance with the EU resolution on COVID-19 vaccine. By using qualitative analysis of scientific literature and documents, statistical data analysis, comparative method of legal acts analysis, the purpose to identify the possible consequences of inadequate legal regulation implementation, affecting observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms, have been exceeded. The article aims to indicate whether there are any unreasonable, over excessive, legal measures in Lithuanian government decisions in trying to control the epidemic and distribution of vaccinations, by implementing legal restrictions against non-vaccinated people. Also, whether legal measures are objectively discriminatory and what the risks of such implementation are. The goal of the research is to indicate the main imposing restrictions, such as non-provision of services, accessing them and getting free health services, not limiting employees to continue their work without the vaccination certificate, not allowing customers in supermarkets or restaurants etc., which causes certain differences between social groups, allowing a reasonable doubt for discriminatory manifestations to be raised, therefore indicating the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the process. Keywords: Lithuania, COVID-19, vaccination, restrictions on human rights.

The vaccination registry of the local health company (ASL) Roma 4

Issue The regional vaccination of Lazio (AVR) and the ASL vaccination registries(AVA) that feed it, have had to adapt to the directions of national vaccination registry. The ASL Roma 4 added other implementations. Description of the Problem L'AVA must, first of all, allow easy search of subjects, defaulters and vaccination coverage for various filters but it can also facilitate the recording and analysis activity. Results The provision of barcodes allows the prompt search of subjects, the check of tax code and AIC codes of vaccines. The digital signature of the privacy and consent forms and anamnesis, taken from the “Guide to contraindications to vaccinations” directly available, allows the elimination of the paper. The possibility to go directly to AVR allows the registration of vaccinations made in other ASL. In addition, the AVA allows the compilation of the adverse event reporting form and vaccine management. The link with the portal on the ASL website allows users to download the vaccination certificate. Important is the possibility to send SMS before vaccination deadlines or appointments. The SMART-SMS allows sending videos or photos and manage a short link (http://tiny.cc/XXX) to an information page on ASL website, as well as user response SMS, that can also directly change appointments. Lessons The dematerialization of the forms leds to a greater compliance with the procedures, a more accurate anamnesis and the streamling of the vaccination session, the SMS bring greater compliance of users and an increase in vaccination coverage. The use of mobile analytics tools allows monitoring of vaccination campaigns. Key messages The dematerialization of the forms in the vaccination registry leds to a greater compliance with the procedures, a more accurate anamnesis and the streamling of the vaccination session. The ability to send SMS through the vaccination registry brings greater compliance of users and an increase in vaccination coverage.