EFFECTS OF THE COVID-19 VACCINE MANDATE RELATIVE TO DENTAL STUDENTS

Objectives: The aim was to highlight the necessity & importance to be vaccinated.
Methods: A cross-sectional study design was adopted. An online questionnaire was circulated to 4 faculties – 2 affected by the hard mandate and 2 who had a soft mandate which was used as a control. Questions aimed to identify whether students felt they were fully informed about the COVID-19 vaccine, if they had a positive or negative view related to it, and if they were aware of the importance of being vaccinated.
Results: The results from research conducted revealed 88.6% of dental students were vaccinated. 41.5% of individuals believed that the vaccine was not necessary. 53.3% of the responses demonstrated non-resistance to take the vaccine. 41.5% of responses believed that the vaccination was not necessary. This represents a viewpoint of the population now that there appears to be some return to normality.
Conclusions: Based on the results obtained, many did not believe the importance of being vaccinated. This highlights our aim in that there are measures that need to be implemented to further educate students about the importance of being vaccinated against COVID-19.