Increase in Covid-19 vaccine acceptance but challenges remain

IN collaboration with the Developmental, Capable and Ethical State Research division of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), the Centre for Social Change, University of Johannesburg recently released two reports regarding vaccine acceptance and hesitancy from a Covid-19 democracy survey.

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The findings included:
· Vaccine acceptance increased between rounds 3 and 4 of the survey, from 67% to 72%
· Younger people are less likely to be accepting of vaccines than older people. While the acceptance rate for those aged 55+ stood at 85%, an increase of 11% since round 3, the 18-24 age group was only 55%, showing a decline of 8%
· Vaccine acceptance declined among white adults, from 56% to 52%, while it increased from 69% to 75% for black adults. However, white adults were more likely than black adults to have been vaccinated (16% compared to 10% respectively)
· Contrary to other research, the report found that religiosity played a minor role in influencing the willingness to vaccinate
· Among those accepting of a vaccine, the most common explanation was the desire to protect oneself
· Among those who are hesitant, side-effects and concerns that the vaccine would be ineffective were the most common self-reported explanations
· Explanations for vaccine hesitancy related to social media or other rumours only made up a small portion of explanations, at 5%. Similarly, reasons related to religious objections or conspiracy theories made up a minority of explanations, at 2%.

These latest findings come from round 4 of the UJ/HSRC Covid-19 democracy survey, which collected data between 25 June and 12 July 2021. The survey was fully completed by 7 631 participants.