Distrust in Covid-19 vaccine in India fell by 10% post vaccination drive: Survey

As the Covid-19 inoculation drive begins in India, the hesitancy towards vaccines has fallen by 10 per cent, according to the recent survey carried out by LocalCircles, a community social media platform.

Since October 2020, LocalCircles has been collecting responses from citizens to know their approach to taking the Covid-19 vaccines. The surveys were conducted in past months to understand if the percentage of reluctance or hesitancy has increased, reduced, or remains unchanged.

The survey revealed that 61 per cent of citizens in the October survey expressed hesitancy in getting the vaccine. This was reduced to 59 per cent in November after vaccine makers Pfizer and Moderna announced success on efficacy results.

However, concerns about the trial process with one of Bharat Biotech partners rose, taking the tally up to 69 per cent, and was maintained till the first week of January.

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After the commencement of the nation-wide vaccination drive, people who were hesitant to immediately take the Covid-19 vaccine came down to 62 per cent.

LocalCircles survey received over 17,000 responses from citizens located in 230 districts of India.

Breaking down the polls

The recent survey report revealed that of 8,658 responses, 32 per cent said they will take the vaccine while 6 per cent said they will take the vaccine whenever it is available via private hospitals/channels.

A total of 22 per cent said they will wait up to three months before making a decision. A total of 14 per cent said they will wait for half a year.

The survey result indicated that 62 per cent of citizens are still hesitant to take it immediately, almost 10 per cent decline in the percentage of citizens hesitant to take the vaccine from December and early January.

Of the 8,782 responses, 59 per cent of citizens revealed that they are hesitant to receive vaccine shots due to unknown side effects. While 18 per cent voted for “effectiveness unknown”. There is also 5 per cent of citizens who believe that the current vaccine may evade future coronavirus stains. While 11 per cent of citizens believe that Covid-19 will go away on its own. 8 per cent of those hesitant did not mention the reason for their hesitancy.