COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy among French People Living with HIV

Abstract

People living with HIV are a high-risk population concerning the coronavirus 19 (COVID-19) infection, with a poorer prognosis. It is important to achieve high COVID-19 vaccination coverage rates in this group as soon as possible. This project used self-reporting to assess vaccine hesitancy and acceptance among people living with HIV towards the novel COVID-19 vaccine. Sixty-eight (28.7%) participants among the 237 declared their hesitancy to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Participants who expressed concerns about their health (p p = 0.017), and their chronic disease status (p = 0.026) were independently associated with the acceptance of vaccination. Conversely, participants presenting general vaccine refusal (p p p = 0.008) were independently associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Our results suggest that vaccine strategy would be more successful in France with a communication strategy emphasizing the collective benefits of herd immunity in the population living with HIV and reassuring patients with chronic diseases about the safety of the proposed vaccines.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• COVID-19 vaccine
• vaccine hesitancy
• HIV