Citation: Kabakama, S.; Konje, E.T.; Dinga, J.N.; Kishamawe, C.; Morhason-Bello, I.; Hayombe, P.; Adeyemi, O.; Chimuka, E.; Lumu, I.; Amuasi, J.; et al. Commentary on COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in sub-Saharan Africa. Trop. Med. Infect. Dis. 2022, 7, 130. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/tropicalmed7070130 Academic Editors: John Frean, Lucille Blumberg and Peter A. Leggat Received: 16 June 2022 Accepted: 3 July 2022 Published: 11 July 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 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/). Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease Commentary Commentary on COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in sub-Saharan Africa Severin Kabakama 1, * , Eveline T. Konje 2 , Jerome Nyhalah Dinga 3,4 , Colman Kishamawe 5 , Imran Morhason-Bello 6 , Peter Hayombe 7 , Olufela Adeyemi 8 , Ernest Chimuka 9 , Ivan Lumu 10 , John Amuasi 11 , Theophilus Acheampong 12 and Tafadzwa Dzinamarira 13 1 Humanitarian and Public Health Consultant, Mwanza P.O. Box 511, Tanzania 2 Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Behavioral Sciences, School of Public Health, Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences, Mwanza P.O. Box 1464, Tanzania; ekonje28@bugando.ac.tz 3 Michael Gahnyam Gbeugvat Foundation, Buea P.O. Box 63, Cameroon; djnyhalah@yahoo.com 4 Biotechnology Unit, University of Buea, Buea P.O. Box 63, Cameroon 5 National Institute for Medical Research, Mwanza P.O. Box 1462, Tanzania; kishamawe@yahoo.com 6 Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, Institute for Advanced Medical Research and Training (IAMRAT), College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan 200132, Nigeria; iomorhason-bello@com.ui.edu.ng 7 Khasto Consultants, Nairobi P.O. Box 18690-00100, Kenya; pkhayombe@khastoconsultants.org 8 Ascendant & Company Ltd., 515 Freetown Highway, Sima Town, Western Area, Waterloo, Sierra Leone; olufela.adeyemi@asendantandcompny.com 9 Apolowil Consultants, 113A Fife Avenue, Harare, Zimbabwe; ernest@apolowilconsultants.com 10 Global Health Security Department, Infectious Diseases Institute, Makerere University College of Health Sciences, Kampala P.O. Box 22418, Uganda; ilumu@idi.co.ug 11 Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana; amuasi@kccr.de 12 iRIS Research Consortium, 6 Ashur Suites, North Legon, Accra, Ghana; theo.acheampong@gmail.com 13 Faculty of Health Sciences, 31 Bophelo Road, Gezina, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0084, South Africa; td2581@cumc.columbia.edu * Correspondence: skabaka@yahoo.com Abstract: Rates of vaccination against COVID-19 remain lower in sub-Saharan Africa than in other low and middle-income regions. This is, in part, attributed to vaccine hesitancy, mainly due to misinformation about vaccine origin, efficacy and safety. From August to December 2021, we gathered the latest experiences and opinions on four vaccine hesitancy-related areas (policies, perceived risk religious beliefs, and misinformation) from 12 sub-Saharan African researchers, four of whom have published about COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. The authors included two political and business experts, six public health specialists, five epidemiologists, and four biostatisticians from ten sub- Saharan African countries( Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe). The authors’ overarching opinions were that political influences, religious beliefs and low perceived risk exists in sub-Saharan Africa, and they collectively contribute to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Communication strategies should target populations initially thought by policy makers to be at low risk, use multiple communication avenues and address major concerns in the population. Keywords: COVID-19; vaccine hesitancy; sub-Saharan Africa 1. Introduction Globally, there had been 522 million COVID-19 cases and six million COVID-19-related deaths by the third week of May 2022 [1]. The African region has reported over nine million cumulative COVID-19 cases and 172,308 deaths since the pandemic started. COVID-19 vaccines have proved to be an effective solution to preventing morbidity and mortality. These are complemented by other non-pharmaceutical interventions such as mask-wearing, social distancing, and hand washing. Trop. Med. Infect. Dis. 2022, 7, 130. https://doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed7070130 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/tropicalmed