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Acceptance of vaccines is increasing, especially among blacks

While vaccine acceptance has increased by five percentage points to 72%, with whites and younger people more hesitant, while acceptance has increased markedly among black adults, reports MedicalBrief.  The survey was conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council and the University of Johannesburg.

The Centre for Social Change, University of Johannesburg (UJ) in collaboration with the Developmental, Ethical and Capable State research division of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) yesterday (Wednesday 18 August) released two reports at a webinar, providing the latest findings about vaccine acceptance and hesitancy from the UJ/HSRC Covid-19 Democracy Survey.

Key findings include:

  • That vaccine acceptance increased between round 3 of the survey and round 4, from 67% to 72%;
  • Younger people are less likely to be accepting of vaccines than older people. While the acceptance rate for those aged 55+ stood at 85%, an increase of 11 percentage points since Round 3. But for the 18-24 group it was only 55%, a decline of 8 percentage points;
  • Vaccine acceptance declined among white adults from 56% to 52%, while it increased from 69% to 75% for black adults. However, white adults were more likely than black adults to have been vaccinated (16% compared with 10%);
  • Contrary to other research, religiosity plays little role in influencing the willingness to vaccinate;
  • Among those accepting of a vaccine, the most common explanations are the desire to protect oneself;
  • * Among those who are hesitant, side effects and concerns that the vaccine will be ineffective are the most common self-reported explanations. Concerns about side-effects and effectiveness of the vaccine are particularly pronounced among white adults, the most vaccine hesitant group.

Explanations for vaccine hesitancy related to social media or other rumours, only make up a small proportion of explanations, 5%. Similarly, reasons related to religious objections or conspiracy theories make up a minority of explanations, 2% respectively.

These latest findings come from round 4 of the UJ/HSRC Covid-19 democracy survey, which collected data between 25 June and 12 July 2021. The survey was fully completed by 7,631 participants. Findings have been weighted to match Statistics South Africa data on race, education and age, and can be regarded as broadly representative of the population at large.

 

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