Mascarenhas A K, Lucia V C, Kelekar A, Afonso N M. Dental students' attitudes and hesitancy toward COVID-19 vaccine. J Dent Educ 2021; DOI: 10.1002/jdd.12632. Online ahead of print.

There's a need to include information on the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine in the dental curriculum.

Using an online platform, in 2020, a survey was administered anonymously to dental students at three dental schools to assess the attitudes of dental students to the novel COVID-19 vaccine. Nearly, all participants had positive attitudes toward vaccines in general, agreed they would likely be exposed to COVID-19, and personally knew someone who had COVID-19; however, only 56% are willing to take a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as an FDA-approved vaccine was available. Of those unwilling to take the vaccine, 63% reported they would take it if mandated by the health systems/dental school; however, 16.3% of the overall respondents would not take the COVID-19 vaccine even if mandated. Several factors are associated with vaccine acceptance, such as trusting public health experts, concerns about side effects, and agreeing with vaccine mandates. The authors highlight the need for an educational curriculum about the safety and effectiveness to promote the uptake of COVID-19 vaccine.