Pulse Asia survey finds 61% of Pinoys do not want to get inoculated vs. COVID-19

The latest survey of Pulse Asia found out the majority of adult Filipinos are not inclined to be vaccinated against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Pulse Asia revealed that six in 10 or 61 percent of adult Filipinos said they do not want to get any COVID-19 vaccine. This, it said, is “a sentiment shared by majorities across geographic areas and socio-economic groupings.”

Among the respondents, only 16 percent of them wanted to receive the vaccine, while about a quarter or 23 percent of adult Filipinos could not say whether or not they want to be inoculated.

The survey was conducted from February 22 to March 3 using face-to-face interviews with 2,400 adult Filipinos aged 18 years old and above. It has plus-minus two percent error margin at the 95 percent confidence level.

On March 1, the Philippines officially kicked off its COVID-19 vaccination drive, with health workers being the first ones to be immunized. This began after the country received Sinovac’s vaccines on February 28.

Based on the survey, the top reason why most of those who opted not to get vaccinated and those who were still undecided were hesitant to receive the COVID-19 vaccine was that they were unsure of its safety. Other reasons were as follows: the vaccine might not be effective, the vaccine is not needed to combat COVID-19, the vaccine might not be free, and the vaccine might be costly or expensive.

Meanwhile, Pulse Asia said that 52 percent of those who are willing to be vaccinated preferred to get the vaccine developed by U.S. drugmaker Pfizer. Sinovac’s vaccine came next with 22 percent, then followed by AstraZeneca with six percent. AstraZeneca vaccines were the second ones to arrive in the Philippines following Sinovac’s vaccines, while the country has yet to receive doses of the Pfizer vaccines. Pfizer’s vaccine was the first to be granted with emergency use authorization (EUA) by the Philippines’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA).