Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Feb 9;10(2):261.
doi: 10.3390/vaccines10020261.

Study on the Refusal of Vaccination against COVID-19 in Romania

Flavius-Cristian Mărcău  1 , Sorin Purec  1 , George Niculescu  1
Affiliations

Study on the Refusal of Vaccination against COVID-19 in Romania

Flavius-Cristian Mărcău et al. Vaccines (Basel). .

Abstract

The refusal to be inoculated with the anti-COVID-19 vaccine by a part of the Romanian population becomes a barrier against controlling and stopping this particularly infectious virus. The rapid evolution of COVID-19 vaccines has created confusion regarding health and safety. Many Romanian citizens refuse vaccination because of fears generated by uncertainties based on information obtained from fake news. At the present moment, January 2022, Romania has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the European Union, below 45% of the total population. In our study, we want to identify the determining factors behind the refusal of vaccination, offering a sociological analysis that, we hope, will help to understand this phenomenon. The analysis revealed that 81% of the respondents trust the mandatory vaccines under the national scheme and 57.3% trust the optional ones other than the anti-COVID-19 vaccines (like Rotavirus, Hepatitis A and B, Influenza, Meningococcal, Pneumococcal, etc.) and have less confidence in the anti-COVID-19 vaccines. The study also reveals a very high percentage of respondents who trust fake news claims.

Keywords: COVID-19; medical education; pandemic; vaccination; vaccination refusal.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Representation of hospital admissions, admissions to intensive care wards and deceased during this period [10].
Figure 2
Figure 2
Trust in doctors in România.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Trust in the medical system in România.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Henning E. Germany’s Covid Infections Rate Rises to Highest Since May, 23 October 2021. [(accessed on 3 November 2021)]. Available online: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-23/germany-s-covid-infec....
    1. Dutch Consider New Coronavirus Curbs as Infections Soar. [(accessed on 3 November 2021)]. Available online: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/dutch-consider-new-coronavirus-curb....
    1. Coronavirus: UK Hospitals on the Brink in the 4th Wave. [(accessed on 3 November 2021)]. Available online: https://euobserver.com/tickers/153300.
    1. Dror A.A., Eisenbach N., Taiber S., Morozov N.G., Mizrachi M., Zigron A., Srouji S., Sela E. Vaccine hesitancy: The next challenge in the fight against COVID-19. Eur. J. Epidemiol. 2020;35:775–779. doi: 10.1007/s10654-020-00671-y. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Romania and Bulgaria Occupy the Last Two Places in the Ranking Regarding the Number of Vaccinated People in the European Union. [(accessed on 7 February 2022)]. Available online: https://www.digi24.ro/stiri/externe/cnn-cum-au-ajuns-romania-si-bulgaria....

LinkOut - more resources