{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,30]],"date-time":"2025-07-30T10:08:24Z","timestamp":1753870104291,"version":"3.41.2"},"reference-count":21,"publisher":"Wiley","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,20]],"date-time":"2024-03-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1710892800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":19,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["onlinelibrary.wiley.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Public Health Challenges"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2024,3]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title><jats:p>COVID\u201019 hit Lebanon at the worst time, amid an economic downward spiral and national protests regarding living conditions and political corruption. The first case was found on February 21, 2020, and the first batch of vaccines arrived on March 24, 2021. Although neither natural infection nor mass vaccination truly provided herd immunity, the latter was a more effective way to handle the pandemic, and Lebanon fell short on that path. During the pandemic, a myriad of factors complicated its response to the virus. Thanks to the COVAX program, the country received 1086,720 doses donated and 1626,390 deliveries. All in all, over 5.8 million doses have been administered. A total of 2.74 million people received at least one dose, and 2.4 million had a complete primary vaccination series. However, around 98% of the population were infected with the virus. Issues that stopped the vaccination campaigns include a lack of trust in government officials and news media, leading to false information propagating and remaining unchallenged online. Other factors include the economic collapse, which led to the Lebanese currency losing over 98% of its initial worth. Some Lebanese people might find themselves either unable to reach proper health facilities or unwilling to adopt the narrative pushed by the political elite. Poverty also worsened affected infected individuals\u2019 prognosis and mortality. A bigger emphasis must be put on reaching individuals with disabilities or in low\u2010income areas, as they were the most affected by the pandemic. Problems these communities face include the lack of funding for special education schools and the lack of accessibility to medical information promoted by the government. Lebanon must learn from the issues that arose during this pandemic and focus on fixing them in advance to prepare for any other health emergency that might turn up in the future.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1002\/puh2.167","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,20]],"date-time":"2024-03-20T07:10:16Z","timestamp":1710918616000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["COVID\u201019 herd immunity in Lebanon: Challenges and prospects"],"prefix":"10.1002","volume":"3","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5716-0131","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Christopher","family":"Maatouk","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Medical Sciences Lebanese University  Hadath Lebanon"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6795-1260","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Orestis","family":"Germanos","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Cyprus Medical School  Nicosia Cyprus"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5018-5707","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Anna\u2010Maria","family":"Aad","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Medical Sciences Lebanese University  Hadath Lebanon"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6258-7439","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Georges","family":"Gandour","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Medicine and Medical Sciences University of Balamand  Koura Lebanon"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1391-519X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Julian M. A.","family":"Buban","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Medicine University of the Philippines Manila  Manila Philippines"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0007-9077-5705","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ralph","family":"Maatouk","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Medical Sciences Lebanese University  Hadath Lebanon"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0002-7906-3225","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Michelle","family":"Zeina","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Medicine Lebanese American University  Byblos Lebanon"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8614-1087","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Shyam Sundar","family":"Budhathoki","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Public Health Imperial College London  London UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2179-6365","authenticated-orcid":false,"suffix":"III","given":"Don Eliseo","family":"Lucero\u2010Prisno","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Global Health and Development London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine  London UK"},{"name":"Faculty of Management and Development Studies University of the Philippines Open University  Los Banos Laguna Philippines"},{"name":"University of Makati Makati City Philippines"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"311","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_10_2_1","unstructured":"Worlddata.info.Lebanon: country data and statistics.https:\/\/www.worlddata.info\/asia\/lebanon\/index.php"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_3_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s12519-020-00343-7"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_4_1","unstructured":"WHO.Lebanon: WHO Coronavirus Disease (COVID\u201019) Dashboard with Vaccination Data [Internet].https:\/\/covid19.who.int"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_5_1","unstructured":"Lebanon\u2014COVID19 Vaccine Tracker [Internet].https:\/\/covid19.trackvaccines.org\/country\/lebanon\/"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_6_1","unstructured":"ReliefWeb.First Batch of COVID\u201019 Vaccines Delivered through COVAX Facility Arrives in Lebanon\u2014Lebanon|ReliefWeb [Internet].2021.https:\/\/reliefweb.int\/report\/lebanon\/first\u2010batch\u2010covid\u201019\u2010vaccines\u2010delivered\u2010through\u2010covax\u2010facility\u2010arrives\u2010lebanon"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_7_1","unstructured":"UNICEF.COVID\u201019 Market Dashboard|UNICEF Supply Division [Internet].https:\/\/www.unicef.org\/supply\/covid\u201019\u2010vaccine\u2010market\u2010dashboard"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_8_1","unstructured":"Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. 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