Introduction
COVID-19 has been quickly circulating across the world since December 2019. Not surprisingly, discussion about COVID-19 is also on the rise [1]. Because of the exponential growth in Covid-19 cases, widespread myths and misinformation regarding the disease’s transmission triggered an ”infodemic,” according to the Global Health Organization [2]. Myth is commonly thought of as a folktale category that involves tales that play an important role in people’s everyday lives [3]. These are often endorsed by religious and government figures, and they express the general workings of a collective public and form people’s trust. Social and religious views play an important role in affecting popular opinion in a given country and influencing the formation or adoption of myths [4].
Vital oils, colloidal silver, and other myths about how to cure manage, and defend against COVID–19 continue to circulate across face-to-face and often web-based media [5]. While some believe that a hot climate destroys viruses, COVID-19 is spreading to some hot countries as well. Few people consider taking zinc, ginger, nectar, a lot of Indian spices, and other vitamins to prevent COVID-19 [6].
According to research, those with a lower level of education or who are illiterate, the unemployed, younger generations, and certain ethnic groups are more hesitant.
Vaccine apprehension continues to be a significant challenge for Pakistan, despite various conspiracy theories. Such theories are largely to blame for the country’s failure to eradicate polio. Among others, reports of low vaccine consistency, concerns regarding dosing guidelines, religious bans (“infidel vaccine”), and speculation about the existence of the active virus in vaccinations are some of the more popular arguments obstructing the country’s anti-polio drive [7].
Unfortunately, in Pakistan, a conspiracy hypothesis about the COVID-19 vaccine is reportedly circulating. Recently, a well-known Pakistani political commentator and columnist reported that the virus was a grand illusion intended to attack Islamic countries and allow Jews to dominate the world, with nano-chips implanted in people’s bodies to gain power over 5G towers [8]. An ex-foreign minister of Pakistan proposed a parallel theory, accusing the US of inventing the virus in the United Kingdom and then moving it to China for global dissemination [9].
These theories are widely debated on social media in the Pakistani culture. Such conspiracy narratives could sow seeds of resistance against upcoming COVID-19 vaccination programs in the world, where vaccine apprehension is a major barrier to preventing vaccine-preventable diseases. Since a long-term lockdown is not feasible in many countries due to economic instability, vaccination supply could be the best solution to prevent the pandemic from spreading.
It was recently discovered that public knowledge of infectious diseases is strongly linked to vaccine confidence [10]. A global survey of 140,000 people on “attitudes to vaccines” found that countries with successful public-awareness programs against multiple infectious diseases have very high rates of consensus on vaccine prevention, efficacy, and value [11]. In a pandemic, recognizing myths and beliefs is important because they can impact preventative and containment efforts. As a result, in this study, myths and misconceptions regarding COVID-19 vaccines were analyzed in the general population of Sindh. To our best of knowledge, there hasn’t been any research done in Sindh on myths and misconceptions about Covid-19 vaccines.
Methods
A web-based cross-sectional survey study was designed through “Google Form” to record responses from the Sindh province of Pakistan in January 2021.
Study area
Sindh is one of the four provinces of Pakistan located in its south. Sindh is the home of almost 47.9 million humans. Sindh province is comprised of seven divisions 29 districts further these districts are subdivided into Tehsils and union councils [12].