• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.4.1-4.18
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• 2021

The global outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is still threatening human health, economy, and social life worldwide. As a counteraction for this devastating disease, a number of vaccines are being developed with unprecedented speed combined with new technologies. As COVID-19 vaccines are being developed in the absence of a licensed human coronavirus vaccine, there remain further questions regarding the long-term efficacy and safety of the vaccines, as well as immunological mechanisms in depth. This review article discusses the current status of COVID-19 vaccine development, mainly focusing on antigen design, clinical trials in later stages, and immunological considerations for further study.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.208-211
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• 2023

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate COVID-19 vaccination intentions in Korean parents for their children aged 5 to 11 years and the factors influencing them. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey of 363 parents of children aged 5 to 11 years was conducted in Korea in April 2022. Data were analyzed using independent t-test, χ² -test, Fisher's exact test, and hierarchical logistic regression analysis using SPSS/WIN 26.0 and MedCalc software version 20.113. Results: Of 363 Korean parents with children aged 5 to 11, 42.4% intended to vaccinate their children. Significant factors influencing vaccination intention were the second or third birth order of children (OR = 3.45, 95% CI = 1.45~8.21), vaccine hesitancy-confidence (OR = 2.00, 95% CI = 1.51~2.65), vaccine hesitancy-collective responsibility (OR = 1.57, 95% CI: 1.10~2.25), and COVID-19 anxiety-avoidance (OR = 1.55, 95% CI = 1.13~2.11). Conclusion: Findings suggest that COVID-19 vaccine campaigns based on reliable information and evidence from health authorities are needed to increase COVID-19 vaccination. Well-designed health communications for the target population may help to increase parental vaccine acceptance.

• Clinical and Experimental Vaccine Research
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.313-318
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• 2023

Purpose: Globally, 25 million children were either unvaccinated or under-vaccinated in year 2021. Among them, India had the highest number of children unvaccinated. Studies have shown impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on routine health-care services. Present study aimed to estimate the impact of COVID-19 on utilization of routine immunization services during years 2020 and 2021 in tertiary-care facility. Materials and Methods: Record based descriptive analytic study was conducted at pediatric tertiary-care hospital, Jaipur. Data of children vaccinated as per the National Immunization Schedule for the period January 2019 to December 2021 were retrieved from the immunization records. Doses administered were assessed as a proxy measure of vaccine coverage. The vaccination trends of 2020 and 2021 were compared assuming base year 2019. Unpaired t-test of significance and Pearson correlation was used for correlation analysis. Results: There was significant drop in the vaccine counts after emergence of COVID-19 pandemic. In year 2020 and 2021, mean monthly vaccine count was 2,190±715.1 and 2,305±393.2, respectively, in which maximum drop was in April 2020 (-79.12%) and May 2021 (-57.16%) when it was compared with matched month of base year. There was negative correlation between percent change in vaccine count and COVID-19 cases in 2020 (r=-0.057, p=0.861) and 2021 (r=-0.827, p=0.001) as compared to year 2019. Conclusion: Study concludes that there was a significant gap in utilization of routine immunization services during the COVID-19 pandemic. This necessitates planning and management of routine immunization services in-case of future pandemics to avoid resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases in the Rajasthan.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.13-30
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• 2023

Since the COVID-19 vaccine became available, people have been sharing their opinions on social media about getting vaccinated, causing discussions of the vaccine to trend on Twitter alongside certain events, making the website a rich data source. This paper explores people's perceptions regarding the COVID-19 vaccine during certain events and how these events influenced public opinion about the vaccine. The data consisted of tweets sent during seven important events that were gathered within 14 days of the first announcement of each event. These data represent people's reactions to these events without including irrelevant tweets. The study targeted tweets sent in Arabic from users located in Saudi Arabia. The data were classified as positive, negative, or neutral in tone. Four classifiers were used-support vector machine (SVM), naïve Bayes (NB), logistic regression (LOGR), and random forest (RF)-in addition to a deep learning model using BiLSTM. The results showed that the SVM achieved the highest accuracy, at 91%. Overall perceptions about the COVID-19 vaccine were 54% negative, 36% neutral, and 10% positive.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.5-12
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• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze and examine the issues that are directly associated with the United States COVID-19 vaccine distribution and its strategies so that other countries may learn from it and develop sound distribution strategies. Research design, data and methodology: This paper has applied both historical and narrative models to review, identify, and analyze existing literatures to assess the United States' vaccine distribution strategy. Results: Distribution strategy developed by the United States seems to have focused heavily on the basic tenets of physical distribution, i.e., transportation, warehousing, inventory, and large-venue mass-vaccination sites, and the strategy seems to have been successful when looking only at the physical tenets of distribution. However, the analysis indicates that the distribution strategy has not either focused on or included the major activities of distribution, such as inward and outward communication, information, and customer satisfaction. Conclusions: The countries that are currently developing or implementing COVID-19 vaccine distribution strategy should review and learn from the United States' vaccine distribution strategy and its implementation. The countries should include and address all the activities of distribution, including inward and outward communication, information, and customer satisfaction to achieve their vaccination goals, minimize confusion, reduce wasting of doses and vaccine desserts, and improve vaccination rates.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.643-662
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• 2023

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to understand an individuals' COVID-19 vaccine acceptance intention during the peak of the pandemic by utilizing the coping theory and technology threat avoidance theory (TTAT) as a framework. Specifically, we focused on understanding how inward and outward emotion-focused coping (EFC), such as psychological distancing and emotional support seeking, affect problem-focused behavior (PFC), which is vaccine acceptance. Furthermore, we investigate how the individuals' cognitive appraisal to- ward COVID-19, consisted of perceived threat and perceived avoidability act as an antecedent of EFC. Methods: A PLS-SEM analysis was conducted to find the causal relation between the variables. An online survey was conducted targeting vaccination recipients on April, 2021. Participants were asked about their perception toward the virus, their coping strategy, and vaccine acceptance intention. A total of 186 valid samples were collected and used for the analysis. Furthermore, to analyze the out-of-sample predictive power of the research model and ensure the generalizability of the results, a PLSpredict analysis was conducted. Results: The results of the PLS-SEM analysis show that perceived threat toward COVID-19 significantly affect an individuals' EFC strategy. Furthermore, both types of inward EFC (psychological distancing, wishful thinking) negatively affected vaccine acceptance intention. On the other hand, emotional support seeking, which is a type of outward EFC, positively affected vaccine acceptance. The result of the PLSpredict analysis confirms the generalizability of the PLS-SEM result. Conclusion: The results of our study could be utilized to decrease vaccine hesitancy and prevent global pandemics by accelerating and increasing vaccination. Our study provides several meaningful implications to researchers and practitioners regarding vaccine acceptance and threat coping behavior.

• Clinical and Experimental Vaccine Research
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.172-175
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• 2023

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a part of our lives now and we have no more effective way of coping than a vaccine. COVID-19 is a disease that causes severe thrombosis outside the respiratory tract. Vaccines also protect us in this respect, but in some rare cases, thrombosis has been found to develop after vaccination (much less frequently than COVID-19). What was interesting in our case was that it showed how a disaster could happen under three factors that predispose to thrombosis. A 65-year-old female patient with disseminated atherosclerosis was admitted to the intensive care unit with complaints of dyspnea and dysphasia. In the evening of the day, the patient had the vaccination 2 weeks ago, she had active COVID-19. On examination, lower extremity pulses could not be detected. The patient's imaging and blood tests were performed. Multiple complications such as embolic stroke, venous and arterial thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, and pericarditis were observed in the patient. This case may give consideration to anticoagulant therapy studies. We give effective anticoagulant therapy in the presence of COVID-19 in patients at risk of thrombosis. Can anticoagulant therapy be considered after vaccination in patients at risk of thrombosis such as disseminated atherosclerosis?

• Clinical and Experimental Vaccine Research
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.87-96
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• 2023

The fast development of vaccines against the novel coronavirus disease is among the most critical steps taken to control this potentially fatal viral disease. Like other vaccines, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines can also cause unwanted reactions. Erythema multiforme (EM) is among the oral mucocutaneous side effects of COVID-19 vaccines. This study aimed to comprehensively review the reported cases of EM since the global onset of COVID-19 vaccination. Data from 31 relevant studies regarding the type and dose of COVID-19 vaccines administered, time of initiation of symptoms, age, and gender of patients, site of involvement, patients' medical history, and treatment options were extracted. In total, 90 patients were identified with EM as a side effect of COVID-19 vaccination across studies. EM had the highest frequency after receiving the first dose of mRNA vaccines in older individuals. The first symptoms of EM appeared in less than 3 days in 45% and after 3 days in 55% of patients. EM is not a common side effect of COVID-19 vaccination, and fear of its occurrence should not impede vaccination.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.1-4
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• 2021

With this as a momentum of approval Pfizer vaccine against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-2019), it is changed to the era of vaccine rapidly. Most countries are trying to reserve effective vaccines and inoculate vaccines into high-risk populations for achieving community immunity. I reviewed several vaccine-related issues to be confronted for moving up to the end of COVID-2019: the efficacy and effectiveness of the approved vaccines, the priorities for vaccination into target groups, side effects, and distrust towards COVID-2019 vaccines. Evidence-based decision-making in the policy process and collaboration with professional groups are the most effective strategies for driving successful vaccination policy.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.347-348
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• 2023

Vaccines help protect people from infections. However, Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) vaccinees often still become infected with COVID-19 variants (breakthrough infections) and may go on to suffer from long COVID symptoms due to short-lasting immunity and less-effective protection provided by available vaccines. Moreover, the current COVID-19 vaccines do not prevent viral transmission and ward off only about 15% of breakthrough infections. To prepare more effective vaccines, it is essential to predict the viral strains that will be circulating based on available epidemiological data. The World Health Organization recommends in advance which influenza strains are expected to be prevalent during influenza season to guide the production of influenza vaccines by pharmaceutical companies. However, future emerging COVID-19 strain(s) have not been possible to predict since no sound epidemiological information has been established. Thus, for more effective protection, immune stimulators alone or in combination with vaccines would be preferable to protect people from COVID-19 infection. One of those remedies would be ginseng, which has been used for potentiating immunity in the past.