WILL YOU TAKE THE JAB?

Want to start a heated debate or argument? Ask the people around you if they are willing to take a vaccine jab for Covid-19, when it arrives. While many countries have already started their vaccine roll-out, South Africa hasn’t. We’re also not sure when we will start, despite assurances from government that we will get the first big batch this month and millions next month as we look to vaccinate 67% of the nation – about 40 million people – by the end of the year.

While we still question whether government has been transparent in the acquiring of the vaccines and whether these numbers are realistic at all, the question still remains: will you take the jab?

Yesterday, our lead story revealed that over 50% of people had reservations about taking the vaccine in two surveys, which canvassed the opinion of over 5 000 people in South Africa.

In technology company’s M4Jam survey of 3 000 people, 32% said they would have the vaccine, 58% said they preferred to wait and see whether it worked for others and 10% would refuse to take it.

According to a survey by CompariSure, which canvassed 2 065 participants, of which 77% were between the ages of 25 and 45, 50% of respondents answered “no” to a direct question on whether they were willing to get the vaccine when it became available. Fear of side-effects and religious beliefs were the main reasons for people saying they would not get the jab.

In a survey The Citizen conducted yesterday, with 244 people answering, 57% said they would get the vaccine.

Dr Jo Barnes, a senior lecturer in the department of global health at University of Stellenbosch, said: “Our only hope is to vaccinate the vast majority of the population to interrupt this chain of infection, passing the virus from one person to the next at such a rapid speed.”

We are clearly a divided nation.