SARS-CoV-2 variants and the global pandemic challenged by vaccine uptake during the emergence of the Delta variant: A national survey seeking vaccine hesitancy causes

BACKGROUND

Herd immunity for COVID-19 is the ultimate goal to end the pandemic. Emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants has been a subject of considerable debate regarding vaccines effectiveness. This ongoing discussion and other evolving variables contribute to the hesitancy toward vaccines and levels of vaccination acceptance among both the healthcare workers and the public. This study was conducted to assess COVID-19 vaccine uptake and hesitancy among the Saudi Arabian population during the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant.

METHODS

A national cross-sectional survey conducted between June 28 and July 5, 2021. The survey collected sociodemographic information, personal and family history of previous COVID-19 infection, adherence to precautionary measures, COVID-19 vaccination status, parental willingness to vaccinate their teenage children, and address variable associated with hesitancy to receive vaccination.

RESULTS

Among the 4071 participants, 67 % were women, 86 % of the participants received COVID-19 vaccine, 70 % had very high or high commitment with COVID-19 precautionary measures. On multivariate analysis, vaccine hesitancy was less likely in men (OR 0.652, p-value < 0.001), those who had direct family members infected with COVID-19 (OR 0.455, p-value < 0.001), and those who reported using the Ministry of Health official channels as information sources (OR 0.522, p-value < 0.001), while those younger than 44 years had higher hesitancy to receive the vaccine (1.5-2.1 times). Of the participants, only 42 % showed willingness to vaccinate their teenage (12-18 years old) children.

CONCLUSIONS

The participants in this study had high COVID-19 vaccination rate; however, hesitancy was reported more commonly among women. Their willingness to vaccinate their teenage children was much lower. Participants relying on social media platforms were highly hesitant to receive vaccination. Public health officials should scale up their efforts targeting females, young population, and parents by vaccination awareness campaigns, and refute misinformation spread on social media, especially with the emergence of variants and the news burst that coincide with them.

Inter-related effects of dietary fat and protein level on growth performance in rabbits

Isoenergetic substitution of dietary corn oil for dietary carbohydrates enhances growth in rabbits. It was hypothesized that identical amounts of metabolizable energy in the form of corn oil are more effective than those of carbohydrates in reducing protein catabolism and thus sparing it for growth, which would imply that the fat effect is greater on a marginal than normal protein diet. Young growing rabbits were fed semi-purified diets either relatively high (21.6 energy % protein) or low in casein (13.0 energy % protein) to which extra corn oil (21.1 instead of 5.3 energy %) was added at the expense of an isoenergetic amount of corn starch and dextrose. The addition of corn oil to the diet with 21.6 energy % protein indeed increased weight gain, but the addition to the diet with 13.0 energy % protein left weight gain unchanged. These results refute our hypothesis, because the low-protein intake was not limiting growth. The enrichment of the high-protein diet with extra corn oil did not affect nitrogen retention, whereas urinary nitrogen excretion was increased. These observations also are at variance with the idea that additional fat would spare nitrogen for growth.