Only half of Britons would definitely get the coronavirus vaccine

[Redolent]

Only half the population of Britain definitely would accept being vaccinated against Covid-19. That is the shock conclusion of a group of scientists and pollsters who have found that only 53% of a test group of citizens said they would be certain or very likely to allow themselves to be given a vaccine against the disease if one becomes available.

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By contrast, one in six (16%) said they would definitely not or would be unlikely to accept a vaccine, according to research by King’s College London and Ipsos Mori. In addition, it was found that one in five (20%) said they would only be “fairly likely” to go ahead with inoculation.

The study found vaccine rejection was strongest among those whose beliefs reflect greater scepticism about science and who are less concerned about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Likely refusal was also linked to those who tended to be less willing to wear face masks and who said they got most of their information about the disease from WhatsApp and other social media outlets.

There was also a significant age divide in responses with 22% of those in the 16-24 and 25-34 age groups saying they would be unlikely or definitely would not accept a vaccine compared with only 11% among 55-75 year-olds.

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The trends revealed by the study – which was based on 2,237 interviews with UK residents aged 16-75 and which was carried out online in mid-July – have triggered dismay among scientists. “Misperceptions about vaccines are among our most directly damaging beliefs, and they’re clearly influencing people’s intentions during the coronavirus crisis,” said prof Bobby Duffy, director of King’s College London’s the Policy Institute, which led the study.

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“While one in six in the UK say they are unlikely to or definitely won’t get a potential vaccine against Covid-19, this rises to around a third or more among certain groups, with a clear link to belief in conspiracy theories and mistrust of government, authority and science.”

This point was backed by Gideon Skinner, research director at Ipsos Mori. “Almost a quarter of 16-34-year-olds are saying they’re unlikely to get vaccinated for Covid-19 if one becomes available. That is deeply concerning and should serve as an important staging post for the government to combat misperceptions about vaccinations, particularly among young people.”

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/09/only-half-of-britons-would-definitely-have-covid-19-vaccination

“ 22% of those in the 16-24 and 25-34 age groups saying they would be unlikely or definitely would not accept a vaccine ”

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Uh yeah I wonder how they’ll feel about that when people who refuse the vaccination are slapped with all kinds of international travel restrictions.

But the whole population wouldn't be vaccinated anyway, right, at least not for a while? Maybe some of that group are also reacting to the fact that for them it's a bit hypothetical as young people are unlikely to be prioritised, coupled with the fact that at this point in time we don't know very much at all about the vaccine - maybe ask again in a few months?

I'm a late twenties female, no known health issues. I think I'm going to be fairly low down the pile for a vaccine. Right now that suits me ok because my chances of dealing with the virus are probably not bad, and particularly at this point in time when we don't yet know a lot about the vaccine. I'm not anti-mask, anti-science or pro-conspiracy.

The detail of the article it also says a further 20% are fairly likely to get it. Given there isn't yet a vaccine that anyone has proven to be safe, I don't think that's too bad. 72% getting it would probably be enough for herd immunity, and some others may end up getting vaccinated if they're told they can't get travel insurance or take a new job without it.

I'm also quite happy for some people to be hesitant so that I can get mine quicker!

They wouid have to have a rolling programme for vaccination, beginning with key front line staff, adding the extremely clinically vulnerable next (assuming that they have established safety in that group), then other key workers and the medically vulnerable.
And only then anyone else.

Interesting to see the correlation between using social media as main source of info and reluctance with (not exemption from) wearing masks.

Reminds me of the WHO report on Russian online trolls and antivax messages

A lot of people don't want to be first in case there's something wrong with it. Once others have had it those numbers will climb higher.

It's a bit of a selfish attitude, but sensible enough

When a vaccine is rushed through, as this one will be, I'm not surprised that a lot of people are nervous about getting it. I'm not remotely anti-vax - quite the opposite in fact - but I've read several things lately where scientists are saying that when something is prepared so quickly we'll only really know about side effects when it's been rolled out to millions of people and that isn't exactly reassuring!

Having said that, I'd be prepared to be vaccinated and I suspect that if this thing continues to be such a huge, worldwide problem, those who have been vaccinated or had Covid-19 and have antibodies, may well get a stamp in their passport to that effect enabling them to travel when others cannot. I'd get vaccinated for that purpose alone.

Well that's a good thing because everyone wont get it. It will only be given to those most at risk surely.

Uh yeah I wonder how they’ll feel about that when people who refuse the vaccination are slapped with all kinds of international travel restrictions
This will not happen

@XiCi

Well that's a good thing because everyone wont get it. It will only be given to those most at risk surely.

Uh yeah I wonder how they’ll feel about that when people who refuse the vaccination are slapped with all kinds of international travel restrictions
This will not happen

Herd immunity requires a high uptake. There will always be vulnerable people who can’t get vaccinated.

Countries like Italy already ban unvaccinated children from schools. France also penalises parents of unvaccinated children. If countries were already exploring ‘immunity passports’ just for having antibodies, they’re probably going to do it for people who are vaccinated.

If you look up Chris Witty on YouTube he has a couple of lectures on pandemics (produced a couple of years ago) and he explains how vaccination can be used to prevent the spread of the disease.

There is more than one approach and vaccinating everyone is just one and may not be the most efficient one.

If countries were already exploring ‘immunity passports’ just for having antibodies, they’re probably going to do it for people who are vaccinated
This wont happen either, as there is no evidence to suggest that if you have antibodies you are immune and no evidence as to how long we have antibodies for. Latest research suggests only a couple of months.

well, there will be shorter waiting lists for those of us that want it then, won't there

It's all hypothetical. How can you decide to have something that doesn't yet exist and you may not be offered?

If it had been 50% of medical workers it would potentially be worrying.

I dont think it's that surprising. More than 50% aren't really at much risk from the virus so I'm not surprised that they're not thinking strongly about having something which doesnt yet even exist.

Talk of banning international travel etc. is premature as realistically they'd need the vaccine to be widely available to all before that stage and that's still some way off.

I can't see most people even needing to consider the vaccine 'choice' till at least next summer.

I'm astonished it's that high in the groups where we know the risk of COVID is extremely low, and the risk of vaccine unknown, but we know it is a risk. Higher risk things to them like a chicken pox or even flu vaccines (although that obviously fails the specificity test often) aren't being taken up. The risk/reward is not there for them.

We spent a lot of time being told that we could be asymptotic carriers of this virus. The government talked a lot at the start about how important their testing for immunity would be, what’s happened to that?

I really want to be able to trust our government, but they don’t make it easy! I’m not a conspiracy theorist and I understand enough about how vaccines work. For now though, I’d say I wouldn’t have the vaccine because they aren’t giving any reassurances that we will all be tested to see if we need the vaccine first. People are bound to be wary before they’ve been given any real information about how it will all work.

It has cost countries a fortune and ruined economies, some will definitely ban entry. Australia and NZ are already. Quarantine in China.
Maybe EU wouldnt due to the travel across borders but may have an agreement within Schengen.(sp)
Why would they want infected uk tourists anywhere when that might put people off from other countries going.
I think people arent concerned as the focus is always on the death not hospitalisation and not long covid.
Not sure they have been reading about the damage done to even asymptomatic people.
Really need to sort out England education system some of these people haven't even got GCSE maths so of course they will struggle to understand stuff.
Also a lot of young people have grown up pretty spoilt.

The main reason low vax could be an issue is
If. It wears off quickly - under a year

• it might not work well for elderly
• people with health issues may not be able to have it.

Also they could say if you arent vaxxed you have to continue to SI after t&t etc which wouldnt go down well with employers.

They were so quick to pump out the young people won't be affected, it's "just" the elderly and immunocompromised. People are still going by this and also have seen loads of people of Facebook saying you only get coronovirus if you don't wash your hands and wear mask. They don't believe they have a chance of getting it

they aren’t giving any reassurances that we will all be tested to see if we need the vaccine first.
Why would you need testing first though, surely a vaccine is a way of prevention, you don't have to have what you're getting the vaccination for?

Testing should come first because there might be no need to give the vaccine to people who already have protection.

Are they planning on giving it to everyone, even if they’ve already had and recovered from Covid that has been confirmed? If not, then surely they wouldn’t need to give it to other people who had the virus but never got a positive test because they weren’t available at the time they were ill?

I just don’t like the idea of people being given a vaccine, which comes with the same risk of side effects as any other medical treatment, if they don’t need it.

A lot of people aren't at all fearful of catching Covid in terms of themselves, especially as so many cases are asymptomatic.

NailsNeedDoing unfortunately studies are showing that in general there isnt long term immunity, just a few months and even that wasn't found in everyone who had it. This virus is a (insert bad word here)

I’m not surprised. Probably the same group who have been moaning about everyone else doing lockdown wrong, been the shopping basket Stasi, moaned about people complying with the mask rules but having the temerity to say they don’t mince them, and have called everyone who doesn’t comply with their made up version of rules “selfish”.

Mince = like

@stayathomer

NailsNeedDoing unfortunately studies are showing that in general there isnt long term immunity, just a few months and even that wasn't found in everyone who had it. This virus is a (insert bad word here)

Studies may show that antibodies dont last long and some people who have tested positive didnt appear to have any antibodies. Therefore they are now considering the impact of T cell immunity. This may be longer lasting than antibodies but is harder to test for. The oxford vaccine trials suggested that the vaccine invoked both antibody and t cell immune responses.