A "significantly higher" percentage of Filipinos are inclined to get vaccinated against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Pulse Asia said in its latest "Ulat ng Bayan" survey results.
Back in February 2021, just as the government rolled out its COVID-19 vaccination program, Pulse Asia noted that only 16 percent of Filipino adults were willing to get vaccinated once vaccines were made available to the public.
"With the start of the vaccination program in March 2021 and medical frontliners, senior citizens, and those with underlying health problems getting the first COVID-19 jabs, the percentage of Filipino adults inclined to get vaccinated goes up to 43 percent in June 2021," Pulse Asia pointed out.
The rest of Filipino adults were either not going to get a COVID-19 vaccine (36 percent), were unable to say whether or not they will get vaccinated (16 percent), or were already vaccinated (5 percent), either fully (2 percent) or partially (3 percent).
The latest Ulat ng Bayan national survey on COVID-19 was conducted on June 7-16, 2021 with 2,400 respondents.
Pulse Asia also noted that 55 percent of Filipino adults in Metro Manila and 48 percent in Mindanao, as well as 50 percent of Filipinos belonging to Class ABC and 42 percent belonging to Class D, were willing to get vaccinated against COVID-19, especially now that vaccines are available in the country.
However, 49 percent of Filipino adults in Visayas expressed unwillingness to get COVID-19 jabs.
"Around the same percentages of those in the rest of Luzon and Class E will either get a vaccine against COVID-19, both at 38 percent, or they will not, at 39 percent and 44 percent, respectively," Pulse Asia said.
Vaccine safety concerns
Pulse Asia said that the most often cited reason among those who were not getting vaccinated and those undecided on the matter was vaccine safety (69 percent and 79 percent, respectively).
This is also the predominant reason across geographic areas and socio-economic areas among those not inclined to get a COVID-19 jab (59 percent to 76 percent and 57 percent to 80 percent, respectively) and those who cannot say whether or not they will get vaccinated (57 percent to 85 percent and 76 percent to 95 percent, respectively).
Other reasons to explain vaccine hesitancy among Filipino adults not getting a COVID-19 vaccine and those ambivalent on the matter of being vaccinated were, concern about its efficacy (12 percent and 10 percent, respectively); the belief that a vaccine is not needed to combat COVID-19 (11 percent and 4 percent, respectively); worry that the vaccine might not be given for free (2 percent and 3 percent, respectively); and concern that the vaccine might be expensive (0.4 percent and 2 percent, respectively).
"While concern about vaccine safety eases between February 2021 and June 2021 among those disinclined to get vaccinated (-15 percentage points), the reverse holds true among those ambivalent about vaccination (+5 percentage points)," Pulse Asia explained.
"Among those not getting vaccinated, levels of concern about vaccine safety decrease during this period in all areas (-10 to -21 percentages points) and Classes D and E (-13 to -29 percentage points). As for those undecided about getting a COVID-19 jab, concern about vaccine safety becomes more pronounced in Classes ABC and E (+64 and +29 percentage points, respectively) while it eases in Class D (-7 percentage points)," it added.
However, among those undecided about vaccination, the top reason that would convince them to get vaccinated is seeing that those they know who have gotten a vaccine against COVID-19 are safe (44 percent).