Coronavirus: people in China ‘the most willing among 15 countries to take a vaccine’
- World Economic Forum-Ipsos survey finds side-effect concern and perception of being at low risk of Covid-19 among reasons for vaccine hesitancy
- Data shows American willingness to have coronavirus jab has risen since October poll
At the bottom of the pack was France with 40 per cent of those surveyed interested in taking the vaccine at the time of polling, while in Russia the figure was 43 per cent.
The survey was conducted online from December 17 to 20 among 13,542 adults. It comes as mass vaccination campaigns are taking shape around the world and vaccine doses are starting to be shipped worldwide – the fastest development of vaccines in history.
Whether the doses can slow the pandemic will depend on a number of factors, including efficacy, global access to doses and how willing people are to take them, experts say.
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But Chinese regulators have yet to approve a vaccine for general use. On December 19, health officials said data from late in final-phase trials overseas was being reviewed by regulators on a rolling basis.
While Chinese respondents in the latest Ipsos and World Economic Forum polling had the highest level of intent to get vaccinated, the 80 per cent figure was a 5 percentage point dip from the pollster’s October results and a 17 percentage point decline from the August results.
A number of countries experienced declines over that period, the data shows.
The survey also included respondents from the United States, South Korea, Japan, France, Spain, Germany, Canada, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, Italy, Mexico, Russia, and Britain.
In every country in the latest survey, 57-80 per cent of those who say they would not take a Covid-19 vaccine cited concerns about side effects as the main reason.
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In China, 70 per cent of respondents cited this as the reason that “best describes” why they would not take a vaccine.
China‘s health authorities have said their emergency use campaign showed common adverse effects such as headache, fever and irritation at the shot site, and they have recently looked to assure the public that side effects from the vaccines, which use a traditional inactivated method, are “less severe” than those developed by in other countries.
Monitoring for adverse events is a critical part of data collection throughout all stages of vaccine development and the evaluation process by regulators.
People surveyed in China were far more likely than respondents in other countries to say their reason for hesitation was because they were not at enough risk of Covid-19. Nearly a third of Chinese respondents cited this as the best reason that they would not take a vaccine, compared with the next highest group, British respondents, at 25 per cent.
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China has largely controlled the spread of Covid-19 since it brought an outbreak of cases at least in the tens of thousands under control earlier this year in the pandemic’s first epicentre in the central city of Wuhan.
The survey also showed an uptick in intent to take vaccines among Americans. The US authorised its first vaccines for emergency use this month. In the latest poll, vaccination intent in the US stood at 69 per cent, a 5 percentage point increase from the same poll conducted in October.
