Introduction: COVID-19 vaccines emerged as a worldwide hope to contain the pandemic. However, many people are still hesitant to receive these vaccines. We aimed to systematically review the public knowledge, perception, and acceptability of COVID-19 vaccines in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries and the predictors of vaccine acceptability in this region.
Methods: We systematically searched databases of PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane and retrieved all relevant studies by 5 August 2021.
Results: There was a considerable variation in the COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rates, from 12% in a study from Israel to 83.3% in Kuwait, although two other studies from Israel mentioned 75% and 82.2% acceptability rates. Concerns about the side effects and safety of the vaccine were the main reasons for the lack of acceptability of taking the vaccine, which was reported in 19 studies. .
Conclusion: Several factors, such as age, gender, education level, and comorbidities, are worthy of attention as they could expand vaccine coverage in the target population..
Keywords: Attitude; COVID-19; COVID-19 vaccine; Middle East; North Africa; SARS-CoV-2; acceptability; perception; vaccine.