Article COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in a Representative Education Sector Population in Qatar Reem Al-Mulla 1 , Marawan Abu-Madi 1,2 , Qusai M. Talafha 2,3 , Reema F. Tayyem 4 and Atiyeh M. Abdallah 1,2, *   Citation: Al-Mulla, R.; Abu-Madi, M.; Talafha, Q.M.; Tayyem, R.F.; Abdallah, A.M. COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in a Representative Education Sector Population in Qatar. Vaccines 2021, 9, 665. https:// doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9060665 Academic Editor: Ralph J. DiClemente Received: 8 April 2021 Accepted: 22 May 2021 Published: 18 June 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Health Sciences, QU-Health, Doha 2713, Qatar; ra1305908@student.qu.edu.qa (R.A.-M.); abumadi@qu.edu.qa (M.A.-M.) 2 Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Research Unit, QU-Health, Qatar University, Doha 2713, Qatar; qusai.talafha@hu.edu.jo 3 Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, The Hashemite University, Zarqa 330127, Jordan 4 Department of Nutrition, College of Health Sciences, QU-Health, Doha 2713, Qatar; reema.tayyem@qu.edu.qa * Correspondence: aabdallah@qu.edu.qa; Tel.: +974-4403-7578; Fax: +974-4403-4801 Abstract: Even though vaccination programs have now started in earnest across the globe and in Qatar, vaccine hesitancy remains a barrier to effectively tackling the pandemic. Many factors influence willingness to take vaccines including safety, efficacy, and side effects. Given their proximity to research and education, university students and employees represent an interesting cohort in which to investigate vaccine hesitancy. The aim of this study was to assess the attitudes of Qatar University employees and students towards the COVID-19 vaccine. In total, 231 employees and 231 students participated in an online cross-sectional study in February 2021. Of the sample, 62.6% were willing to take a vaccine against COVID-19. Participants with or taking postgraduate degrees were more willing to take the vaccine compared to participants with or taking a diploma or bachelor’s degree (p < 0.001). Males had a higher rate of vaccine acceptance (p < 0.001). In the group that regarded flu vaccination as important, 13% were unwilling to take COVID-19 vaccine. There were no associations between willingness to vaccinate and vaccine/virus knowledge and social media use. Participants showed a high level of concern regarding vaccine side effects in themselves or their children. Two-thirds agreed or strongly agreed that they would take the vaccine if it was mandatory for international travel. Our participants were neutral to the origin of vaccine development. These findings, which represent data collected after the start of the national vaccination program, show that vaccine hesitancy persists in the Qatari population and that some groups, such as undergraduate students, could benefit from specific, targeted public health campaigns. Keywords: COVID-19; vaccine; hesitancy; Qatar; education sector; post vaccine administration program 1. Introduction A number of vaccines to protect against COVID-19 have now been developed and distributed in the global fight against the pandemic. However, this effort has encountered an old and persistent enemy of public health, namely vaccine hesitancy. Vaccine hesitancy is a complex global issue listed as one of the top ten threats to global health in 2019 by the World Health Organization (WHO). In the online era, anti-vaccine activists and groups use social media and online campaigns to spread the erroneous belief that vaccinations are fundamentally unsafe [1]. As a result, communities have gone from being concerned about the spread of disease to being concerned about vaccine safety. Most parts of the world have faced two or three waves of COVID-19 infections with different virus strains. Moreover, countries that initially successfully controlled viral spread saw outbreaks return as restriction and control measure were eased. Herd immunity is a critical component of Vaccines 2021, 9, 665. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9060665 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/vaccines