47% people in J&K may not take COVID19 vaccine even when available: Survey

COVID19 vaccine has evoked a mixed response in J&K with only 45 percent of the residents expressing willingness to get the shot when available, a survey has shown. The hesitancy is rooted in perceptions about the pandemic and the vaccine efficacy.

The survey titled attitude to COVID19 vaccination among healthcare workers and general population in J&K carried out by Dr Naveed Nazir Shah, head department of Chest Medicine at GMC Srinagar has studied the perceptions related to COVID19 pandemic among general population and healthcare workers (HCWs).

   

One out of every five people (21.3 percent) in J&K feels that COVID19 is “not a real disease”, as per the survey results.

Dr Shah said the survey has given an insight into how people process information and their current beliefs about the COVID19 pandemic and their expected behaviour. The survey had over 1900 participants from across India, including 1346 from J&K. Interestingly, 14.3 healthcare workers also share the belief that the pandemic is “unreal”.

The survey aimed to find out the level of acceptance of COVID19 vaccination. Its results reveal that 47.3 of people (other than health workers) have hesitancy in taking the vaccine. The readiness has been documented in 52.7 percent of the people in the UT. In other states, 61.7 percent people are ready to take the vaccine, 38.3 have apprehensions that may make them skip the vaccine shot when available.

Among the HCWs, 33 percent may not take the vaccine due to the various perceptions while 67 percent have shown acceptance. However, the recent vaccination drive carried out in J&K has shown that the vaccination figures among healthcare workers were less than what the study projected it to be.

Dr Shah said the “hesitancy values” were not constant and may change depending upon a number of factors. “The hesitancy may increase or decrease. It depends on what information people are subjected to and how they process this information,” he said.

The research has shown that the reluctance to take the vaccine may stem from the fact that some people think they cannot get the disease, or feel that the disease is not a serious threat. In some cases, Dr Shah said, it may be because people feel that although they have a considerable risk, they do not feel secure with the available vaccine drive. “Vaccination, be it polio or some other, has always faced resistance in certain people and COVID19 vaccination is no exception,” he said.

The results were based on a 41-question format that had been circulated over a wide online network of respondents.  Many of the questions were designed as rating scales to give more flexibility to responses and assess the perception to the pandemic and response to it in a better way.

Hamad Medical Corporation and Weil Cornell University collaborated with the survey.  Dr Shuja Reagu, Dr Majid Alabdulla and Dr Zaid were the other investigators, Dr Shah said.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

9 − 7 =