Covid~19 Vaccine Hesitancy (2 CEU’s)

In January 2020, WHO discovered a new coronavirus disease believed to have emerged in Wuhan, Hubei Province in China (Sheikhpour, 2020). Coronaviruses (CoVs) are the largest group of viruses causing respiratory and gastrointestinal infections containing non-segmented positive-sense, single-stranded ribonucleic acid (RNA) viruses (Pal et al., 2020). This RNA is a human infecting virus that likely originated in chrysanthemum bats based on its genetic proximity to two bat-derived SARS-like coronaviruses, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) (Del Rio & Malani, 2020). This SARS-CoV has quickly become a global pandemic and the biggest threat to the United States (US) healthcare systems due to its high transmissibility. Mitigation measures include the development of a Covid-19 vaccine to build herd immunity amongst the public in addition to following best practices such as masking, isolating those who are infected, and maintaining physical distancing.