Almost One Third Of Adults Say They Won’t Get The COVID Vaccine Anymore
Misinformation, health concerns, and rollout blunders are creating vaccine hesitancy.
Nearly one-third of Australian adults are cautious about Covid vaccines, a new survey by Fairfax and a partnering research company has found.
15% of unvaccinated respondents said they were “not at all likely”, and 14% “not very likely” to be vaccinated in the next few months. Fear of possible side effects was noted as the main contributing factor.
The findings come as news outlets are being challenged for publishing stories that highlight deaths and health challenges related to the vaccines.
“The media is playing doctor [and this] is having a material effect on vaccine confidence,” Vice President of the Australian Medical Association, Chris Moy said to the ABC.
there should be a number on every newspaper and website front page that says: here's how many Australians got the vaccine as of today, this many of them had no major side effects, this many of them have not died from COVID-19
— CAMERONWILSON POSTING HIS Ws (@cameronwilson) May 18, 2021
On Thursday, May 13, the Australian Press Council closed a complaint against a NewsCorp headline published last December that claimed six people died during a US Pfizer trial.
“By implying in the headline that the deaths were or could have been due to the vaccine, the publication failed to take steps to ensure factual material is not misleading,” the Council found.
Some old people are scared of the vaccines, yet I want to sample them all, like a flight of whiskey, like a cheese board. Curious, the duality of the human experience? Ha ha ha
— Patrick Lenton (@PatrickLenton) May 19, 2021
Conversations around vaccine hesitancy spiked when some cases of rare blood clots were associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine internationally. The risk rate only 4 to 6 people out of a million, while people on birth control pills are way more likely to experience blood clots.
A poll by the Guardian last month found that less than half of people aged over 50 were open to the AstraZeneca vaccine, despite it being the recommended brand for the demographic because the risk of clots is lower for them.
As of May 3, all Australians over the age of 50 are eligible to receive AstraZeneca jabs.
If we want hesitant boomers to get vaccinated the best motivation would be to open up vaccines for millennials and Gen Z. The selfish boomer instinct will kick in instantly and there’ll be lines around the block.
— Rob Stott (@Rob_Stott) May 18, 2021
It’s unclear what specific age range Fairfax sampled for their survey but at this point in time, eligibility for Covid vaccines is still staggered.
High-risk workers, over 70s, Indigenous adults over 50, and people those with underlying medical conditions were prioritised in the phase 1a and 1b.
National Cabinet recommends that the Pfizer vaccine should be prioritised for Australians under 50, according to the Department of Health. Children under 16 are still not eligible for any vaccine brand.
Fairfax’s survey also found another strong reason for vaccine hesitancy is the fact that borders will remain closed until at least 2022 — so there’s no perceived rush from potential candidates.
I feel like we're steering towards a stalemate where a section of the population refuses to get vaccinated, and the government won't open the borders because it's politically unpopular among that group. https://t.co/d40Pq1auUT
— Josh Taylor (@joshgnosis) May 19, 2021
The government is facing backlash over the pace, and inability to meet deadline for its bungled vaccine rollout.
Nearly 3,200,000 vaccine doses have been administered since Monday, May 17.
How about we make vaccines widely available & easy to get at mass immunisation clinics, carry out an effective public education campaign, and ensure that people in aged care and with disabilities are taken care of 🙃. And then worry about these weekly vaccine attitude surveys.
— Ariel Bogle (@arielbogle) May 19, 2021