A third of people are worried about the COVID-19 vaccine

by · Australian Financial Review

A third of the community don’t want to use, or are unsure about, the COVID-19 vaccines, a survey has found, challenging hopes of having enough of the community immunised to create herd immunity.

The Taking the Pulse of the Nation survey by the Melbourne Institute into the impact of COVID-19 found solid support for the vaccine; 66 per cent of those surveyed are willing to be vaccinated for COVID-19.

COVID-19 vaccination in Australia is expected to begin later this month.  Bing Guan/Bloomberg

But of the 1200 surveyed, a third said they had serious reservations, and 19 per cent declared they would not be vaccinated and 14 per cent said they did not know if they would take the jab.

The survey by the Melbourne University research group found that of those reluctant to be vaccinated 65 per cent were worried about side-effects and 37 per cent said they either don’t believe and/or don’t trust the vaccine.

The fortnightly survey tracks changes in the economic and social wellbeing of Australians. The 26th wave of the survey was conducted from February 1-6.

The most recent survey showed support for vaccination had dipped from 74 per cent in October to 66 per cent in early February.

Professorial fellow Anthony Scott, said the successful rollout of the vaccine would require better awareness around the effectiveness of the vaccine in controlling the deadly effects of the pandemic.

“We know that the efficacy of the vaccine relies on herd immunity. Our results suggest that more public education around how and why the vaccine works might help allay concerns and improve participation,” Professor Scott said.

Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient proportion of the community are immune to a virus that it dies out because there are an insufficient number of people to pass the disease onto.

Broad coverage

Infection disease experts say to develop herd immunity for the broader community there will need to be about 65 per cent coverage.

However, it remains unclear how effective the vaccines will be to actually stopping the spread of the disease.

Recent pre-print results from clinical trials in the UK showed the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine Australia is primarily relying on, has the potential to reduce transmission in two thirds of those who received the first shot.

Australia has high levels of vaccine take up compared with most countries with the federal Department of Health noting immunisation coverage for five-year-olds reached the aspirational target of 95 per cent for the first time, late last year.

Victoria has the highest level of vaccination in Australia with 96.06 per cent of the five-year-old population immunised.

The Melbourne Institute survey also identified an “age effect” to experiencing mental distress from COVID-19 with 33 per cent of those in the 18-24 age bracket report experiencing mental distress most of the time compared to 9 per cent for the over 65 years old.

The survey showed a similar bias for financial stress from COVID-19 with 43 per cent of the age-group 25-34 years report being financially stressed compared to 19 per cent in the 55-64 age-group and 8 per cent for the 65+ age-group.