A study by the University of Cape Town has revealed that at least a quarter of South Africans who have not been vaccinated against COVID believe the jab will harm or kill them.
Interviews, conducted with 1,940 unvaccinated people countrywide, found that about 34% are willing, but there are barriers to doing so; 21% will wait and see, and 15% will only get vaccinated if required, said the universityʼs Southern Africa Labour Development Research Unit in an initial release of its study.
As many as one in four will continue to refuse, the research found, mainly because of fears about the safety of the doses.
Just more than 44% of the country’s adult population has been fully inoculated over the past seven months.
The COVID-19 Vaccine Survey (CVACS) was done to help guide those tackling SAʼs vaccine-hesitancy problem and inform the debate over whether to make shots obligatory for various public places, said the researchers, led by Brendan Maughan-Brown.
Most of the interviews were done after Omicron was announced as a variant of concern in November. More data are being collected and will be released in January. About 800 of the people interviewed, the biggest group, were 18-34 years old.
Those who are open to getting a vaccine indicated this would depend on ease of access. Interviewers asked if they would consider receiving a shot in the next week if a trained healthcare worker administered it in their own home or place of work. About 70% said they would.
2021-CVACS-Survey1-PreliminaryResults
Southern Africa Labour Development Research Unit CVACS survey preliminary results (Open access)
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