Knowledge, levels of acceptance and hesitancy of COVID-19 vaccine among general population of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

On 11th March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as a pandemic. The disease is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). As of 17 June 2022, SARS-CoV-2 has infected over 535,248,141 people, with 6,313,229 deaths. Due to devastating effect of COVID-19, achieving herd immunity to prevent onward transmission is crucial. Although obtaining herd immunity against COVID-19 through natural infection is theoretically possible but would place enormous burden on healthcare facilities and may result in over 30 million fatalities globally.