Vaccine hesitation still a worrying factor
OUR survey found an increase in the proportion of adults willing to get vaccinated from 71% in March to 76% in May.
But nearly one in four participants were still hesitant about getting vaccinated. About one in 15 were strongly opposed to vaccinations. This group may not be open to persuasion.
We also found a large gap between the proportion of people saying they were willing to vaccinate and those who had taken action. In the survey we used the electronic registration for vaccination as a proxy to measure people’s ability to convert intention into action.
In the age group of people older than 60, 78% said they were willing to vaccinate. Nationally, by the beginning of July this year, only 55% of this group had registered for vaccination. This shows that there are many people who say they are willing to be vaccinated but have still not taken action to get themselves registered.
It is important to understand this gap between intent and action. The international literature suggests that this is most probably attributable to underlying uncertainty and distrust, requiring more assurances or due to a high time or money cost of registrations and vaccinations.
This interpretation aligns with the large gaps we see in vaccine registrations across the provinces and Limpopo’s strong lead at 77% versus the 55% average. Limpopo is the country’s poorest province, and has a large population of elderly who are mostly illiterate and live in rural areas. It also has the lowest share of people covered by medical schemes.
To ensure an equitable and efficient vaccine roll-out the province chose a different path. Community health workers were provided with smartphones and went into communities to help older people get registered. Royal and religious leaders were among the first to get the jab, and this helped to encourage people to vaccinate. And vaccine sites were set up in areas that are easy to access.
The international literature and the case study of Limpopo suggests that addressing this intent-action gap requires a three-pronged strategy.
The first is to provide accurate information about vaccine safety and side effects.
Vaccine safety was a major concern. Communication campaigns must be tailored to address those who are still fearful.
The second thing is to increase trust by working with community leaders and networks to spread the correct information about vaccines. In our survey, more than half of the respondents who were on the fence said they would get vaccinated if a trusted community leader got vaccinated and stayed healthy.
The third thing to do is to remove barriers for those who do want to get vaccinated, such as access to internet and other resources required to register for vaccination, being far from vaccination sites and not having time to go to a point during the work day.
The worst-case scenario of uneven vaccine distribution would be a localised version of the global events where rich nations have vaccinated large proportions of their populations and poor countries are dealing with constant resurgence.
The same could happen if there isn’t a concerted effort to make sure that people who don’t have access to private health services are vaccinated at the same rate as their richer counterparts.