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Beliefs and attitudes of resistance to vaccination against COVID-19 in indigenous communities of the Cotopaxi province

Abstract:

The response to vaccination is not only a health problem and its epidemiological characterization cannot only respond to an exclusively biomedical perspective but also to social, educational and economic scopes with deep cultural roots. The objective of this study was to know the attitudes and beliefs in four indigenous communities of the Cotopaxi province, regarding the vaccination process. The results of the sampled were stratified in order to explore whether indigenous communities with a higher educational level or greater attendance at educational talks on vaccination differed from others in terms of their attitudes and erroneous beliefs about this process. The Zq1 community proved to be the one with the lowest educational level, the lowest percentage of attendance at educational talks and had the highest percentage of acceptance of vaccination (75.0%). The median rate of erroneous beliefs was higher for beliefs such as “Vaccines are not safe” (Aq3, Cq4: 9.4 ± 1.1, Gq2: 9.3 ± 1.2, Zq1: 8.8 ± 1.3) and “Vaccines have a hidden purpose” (Aq3: 8.6 ± 1.5, Cq4: 8.7 ± 1.4, Gq2: 9.0 ± 1.3, Zq1: 8.4 ± 1, 8).