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CONFERENCE PROCEEDING
Assessing Community Perception in Brunei Darussalam on the Necessity and Efficacy of COVID-19 Vaccination
Siti Majidah Rahim*, Nor Surilawana Sulaiman
Halalan Thayyiban Research Centre, Universiti Islam Sultan Sharif Ali, Sinaut Campus, KM33, Jalan Tutong, Kampung Sinaut, Tutong TB1741, Brunei
Darussalam
*Corresponding author: [email protected]
ABSTRACT
The World Health Organization (WHO) proclaimed the contagious COVID-19 disease brought on by the coronavirus to be a pandemic on March 11, 2020. In Brunei Darussalam, the Omicron variant has replaced the Delta variant as the predominant variant since 2021, leading to a weekly case count of 29,402 cases with 156 deaths in the week ending March 6, 2022. As a result, Brunei has started the COVID-19 National Vaccination Program (NVP), which was conducted in three phases based on different demographic groups. Brunei Darussalam believes that these vaccines will protect the priority groups that it has identified. The government has made numerous attempts to stop COVID-19 from spreading by adopting a "herd immunity" strategy, in which at least 70-75% of the population gets immunized. The main objective of this study is to learn about the Brunei population’s perceptions and understanding of the necessity and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine. A cross-sectional online questionnaire was distributed to 250 local Muslim respondents using Google Forms. SPSS was used to conduct descriptive statistical analyses [frequency (%)] to represent the characteristics of respondents as well as their perceptions of the necessity and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccination. Based on the data analysis, the majority of the respondents (61.6%) agree on the necessity of taking COVID-19 vaccination will indirectly inhibit viral spread, while 62.4% have neutral views on the vaccine’s efficacy.
Therefore, the relevant parties should play a role in building trust in vaccine safety and boosting understanding of the vaccine’s necessity and efficacy.
Keywords: Brunei Darussalam, COVID-19 Vaccination, Efficacy, Necessity, Perception
INTRODUCTION
COVID-19 is caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which was first discovered in late 2019 in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China (Mohamed, et al, 2021). COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) (2020) on March 11 2020. Until September 2021, this emerging disease had infected over 227 million people worldwide and killed over 4 million people (World Health Organization, 2020).
The rate of infection does not appear to be slowing down in the majority of the affected countries, and varying degrees of lockdown has been imposed to contain the virus’s spread.
Brunei had reported over 6,800 confirmed cases with 30 deaths as of 28 September 2021. The widespread vaccination against COVID-19 provided hope for recovery from this pandemic (Cordina, et al, 2021), as vaccines are an important tool for halting virus spread (Biswas, et al, 2021).
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The COVID-19 National Vaccination Program (NVP) began on April 3, 2021, and has been implemented in phases as outlined in the NVP for Brunei Darussalam (Ministry of Health, 2021). The Brunei government intends to vaccinate 70 percent of its population to realise the ‘herd community’. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to assess the community’s perception of the necessity and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccination.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
A cross-sectional web-based survey was performed to collect data on the community’s perception of the necessity and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccination. The anonymous survey was distributed over WhatsApp. An invitation link to take part in the study was sent to participants over WhatsApp connecting them to the Google Forms questionnaire. The study’s participants were recruited using a simplified snowball sampling technique, in which responders were invited to disseminate the link as widely as possible throughout Brunei’s community on their various WhatsApp groups. Data were collected in April 2022. The data were downloaded from the Google site and then analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The data analysis was descriptive to describe the study’s variables, which were also displayed in frequency tables.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Sociodemographic data
This online survey had a total of 250 respondents. Table 1 represents a summary of the respondents’ sociodemographic characteristics, which shows that the majority of respondents are female (61.6 percent), with 59.6 percent of respondents aged 15 -25 years old.
Table 1. Sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents (n = 250)
Variable Description Frequency Percent
1. Age group 15 – 25 149 59.6
26 - 45 94 37.6
<46 7 2.8
2. Gender Male 96 38.4
Female 154 61.6
3. Doses taken First Dose 3 1.2
Second Dose 175 70.0
Third Dose 72 28.8
Source: Data analysis
70 percent of the people in Brunei had received two doses of vaccination as of the time of this study. The Ministry of Health emphasizes that if the population’s total vaccination rate reached 70 to 75 percent, indicating a beneficial influence on the total vaccine taken by the public, the limits might be eliminated. Several responders had only recently received their first dose, yet their prior illnesses are to blame for the delay.
Additionally, Table 1 reveals that a total of 28.8 percent of responders have received their booster shot.
Necessity and Efficacy of COVID-19 Vaccination
Based on Islamic jurisprudential maxims, such as ‘harm must be eliminated’,
‘necessity permits prohibitions’, and ‘hardship begets facility, Muslim jurists,
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including the State Mufti, have stated that vaccination is necessary to safeguard the welfare and general interest of humans (maslahah) and to protect them from harm (mafsadah). Table 2 showed that more than 50 percent of respondents thought that COVID-19 vaccination was a necessity as it would increase immunity and reduce the risk of infecting and spreading the virus.
Even though 61.6 percent of respondents agreed that getting the COVID-19 vaccine is a requirement, 62.4 percent of respondents expressed neutral opinions about the vaccine's efficacy. However, AZ Heroes’ (2021) study shows that vaccinations are much more successful than those are not vaccinated at preventing infections and at reducing the severity and need for hospitalization when infections do occur. As a result, the relevant parties should help spread the word about the efficacy of the vaccine.
Table 2. Necessity and Efficacy of COVID-19 Vaccination (n = 250) n Percent Valid
Percent
Cumulative Percent
Necessity Valid Yes 154 61.6 61.6 61.6
Maybe 86 34.4 34.4 96.0
No 10 4.0 4.0 100.0
Total 250 100.0 100.0
Efficacy Valid Strongly Agree 10 4.0 4.0 4.0
Agree 84 33.6 33.6 37.6
Neutral 156 62.4 62.4 100.0
Disagree 0 0.0 0.0
Strongly Disagree 0 0.0 0.0
Total 250 100.0 100.0
Source: Data analysis
CONCLUSION
The condition and issues that have arisen as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak have completely affected our way of life. Thus, vaccination becomes a strategy that is considered necessary for treating the pandemic condition. It is expected that herd immunity would develop as a result of the vaccination program, which will contribute to the reduction of the transmission of the virus in the population and the protection of high-risk groups who are unable to receive the vaccination.
The findings showed that the majority of the Brunei population agree that vaccines could indirectly reduce the spreading of the virus as well as to further prevent serious illness. Both tables show that the vast majority of Bruneians have received their COVID-19 vaccination and agree that the vaccine is critical in combating the pandemic. Although the populace has received their immunization as a preventative precaution against the virus, the effectiveness of the vaccine is not well understood.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to express our gratitude to Universiti Islam Sultan Sharif Ali (UNISSA) for giving us the opportunity to participate in iJURECON 2022.
REFERENCES
AZ Heroes. (30 June, 2021). COVID-19 Vaccine Reduces Severity, Length, Viral Load for Those Who Still Get Infected. Retrieved from The University of Arizona:
https://news.arizona.edu/story/covid-19-vaccine-reduces-severity-length-viral-load-those-who- still-get-infected
Biswas, B., Nur Ullah, M., Roy, S., Roy, F., & Ridwan, M. (2021). Students' Perception towards COVID-19 Vaccination Program in Bangladesh: A Study on University Students. Budapest
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International Research and Critics in Linguistics and Education, 4(2), 911-921.
doi:10.33258/birle.v4i2.1949
Cordina, M., Lauri, M., & Lauri, J. (2021). Attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination, vaccine hesitancy and intention to take the vaccine. Pharmacy Practice, 19(1), 1-9.
doi:10.18549/PharmPract.2021.1.2.2317
Ministry of Health. (2021). COVID-19 Vaccine. Retrieved 8 August, 2022, from Ministry of Health:
http://www.moh.gov.bn/SitePages/COVID-19%20Vaccine.aspx
Mohamed, N., Solehan, H., Mohd Rani, M., Ithnin, M., & Che Isahak, C. (2021). Knowledge, acceptance and perception on COVID-19 vaccine among Malaysians: A web-based survey.
PLoS ONE, 16(8), 1-17. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0256110
World Health Organization. (2020). WHO Coronavirus Diseases (COVID-19) Dashboard. Retrieved 8 August, 2022, from World Health Organization: https://covid19.who.int/
