With COVID-19 vaccination programmes now under way in many parts of the world, confidence about getting the shot continues to rise.
The latest vaccine survey from Ipsos and the World Economic Forum looked at people’s intention to be vaccinated at the earliest possible date.
During the last few days of February, more than 13,500 adults under the age of 75 – who had not been vaccinated at that point – were asked online whether they would be likely to get their shots when offered.
Where are people most confident about being vaccinated?
Very high in Brazil (89%) Italy (85%), China (82%), Spain (82%), Mexico (80%) and South Korea (80%).
Fairly high in Canada (79%), Australia (78%), Japan (74%) and Germany (74%).
Middling in the US (65%), South Africa (65%) and France (59%).
Low in Russia (42%).
The countries with the smallest increase from December 2020 of those who strongly agree they would get the vaccine are Russia (+2 to 16%) and the US (+3 to 41%). At the other end of the spectrum, the number of adults who agree strongly that they would receive the COVID-19 vaccine rose by 36 percentage points to 62% in Italy, and 31 points to 57% in Spain. People in Brazil and the UK also express a high degree of confidence in being vaccinated.
How many people have been vaccinated?
The UK has made solid progress with the rollout of its vaccination programme. According to the country’s National Health Service (NHS), the total number of people to have received at least one dose had reached 17,179,491 at the end of February. In the final week of the month, 2,249,002 people received a vaccination shot.
That means about one-third of the UK population has now been given at least one dose of the vaccine. By comparison, in the US that proportion is 14% and for Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, and Spain it is between 3% and 5%, according to data from Oxford University cited by Ipsos.
Elsewhere around the world, vaccine uptake is also on the rise. In India, 21m doses have now been administered. Last month that was just 5.8m.
As vaccination begins to lead to declining rates of infection, hospitalisation and fatality in many countries, people aren’t just becoming more confident about being vaccinated, they say they wouldn’t hesitate.
Asked by Ipsos when they would get the vaccine, in most of the countries surveyed, the majority answered “immediately”.
The survey showed that South Africans are increasingly showing an interest in getting vaccinated against COVID-19. Business Day reports that as recently as December, South Africa ranked among the countries in which citizens exhibited the lowest intention to get vaccinated, with only 53% of people saying they would get a shot.
The latest survey, conducted in late February, shows that has increased to 65%.
More than 13,500 adults under the age of 75 participated in the survey between February 25 and 28 on Ipsos’s global advisor online platform.
“The trends are good, but new variants are more contagious and with vaccination intention rates as reflected in the study, we would not reach herd immunity,” said Arnaud Bernaert, head of health and health-care at the WEF.
[link url="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/03/confidence-in-covid-19-vaccines/"]World Economic Forum material[/link]
[link url="https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2021-03/global-attitudes-on-a-covid-19-vaccine-march-2021-report_.pdf"]Ipsos/WEF survey[/link]
[link url="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/health/2021-03-12-more-south-africans-want-to-get-vaccinated-survey-shows/"]Full Business Day report (Open access)[/link]