68% to “wait and see” before COVID-19 vaccination

Professor You Myung Soon (SNU) surveys South Koreans’ perception on COVID-19 for the 11th time

Surveyed 1,094 adults, 42% expecting the vaccine to be commercialized in mid-year

Sandra Lindsay, a nurse in the U.S., is taking the COVDI-19 vaccine (Source: CNN).

Apparently, six out of 10 people in South Korea are intending to ‘get inoculated after confirming the outcome’ of the COVID-19 vaccine.

 

Only 28.6 percent answered they would ‘get inoculated as soon as possible.’ As requested by a public survey research firm KSTAT Research, Professor You Myung Soon at Seoul National University Graduate School of Public Health surveyed 1,094 adults around the country from Jan.

 

8 through 10 for the 11th survey on their perception of COVID-19.

 

The study found 67.7 percent would wait until later to see the performance of the vaccine to take the vaccine.

 

Regarding the timing of initiating the inoculation in South Korea, 59.9 percent said they should wait and see, while 37.8 percent said as soon as possible.

 

On the questionnaire asking about the fear and anticipation of the vaccine, 40.4 percent said they have a same level of both fear and anticipation, when 28.1 percent have more fear and 25.6 percent have more anticipation.

 

42.

 

percent expects the timing of the vaccine commercialization would be around the middle of the year, and 35.4 percent and 11.2 percent answered late this year and next year, respectively.

 

The majority of the survey participants, or 80.3 percent of them said they intend to receive free safety-proven vaccine (53.2 percent maybe, 27.1 percent absolutely).

 

Professor You Myung Soon noted, “The survey provided an insight into the people’s sense of threat by the COVID-19 pandemic, prudence in vaccine development and use, and a positive level of trust in the healthcare system and the government’s vaccination plan.

 

The government would need to endeavor to reflect the people’s intention and experience from various angle based on the understanding that their final judgment would be comprehensively made.” The survey participants answered the South Korean society in last 12 months of COVID-19 was not safe (59.7 percent), average (29.2 percent), and safe (11.2 percent).

 

The ratio of the participants answering ‘not safe’ peaked from the entire series of the COVID-19 surveys Professor You has done so far.

 

Regarding the third wave of the pandemic, 51.9 percent said the worst has yet to come, whereas 23.8 percent said the worst has passed.

 

The participants also scored average 40 assessing if the daily life has recovered from the changes COVID-19 brought, when 100 indicates ‘completely.’ However, the score was lower in different demographics, such as the low income community (35.4), unemployed (35.5) and women in 30s (35.3).