Majority of Indians remain wary of Covid vaccine's efficacy, side-effects

A survey by LocalCircles said less than one-fourth of Indians, particularly the frontline workers who constituted 8 per cent of the total respondents, were willing to take the vaccine as soon as it became available.

New Delhi:Despite the highly infectious nature of Covid-19 virus that has so far killed over 1,38,000 people in the country and nearly 1.5 million people worldwide, a sizable chunk of Indians remain skeptical about the efficacy and side-effects of a Covid vaccine, said a survey. A survey by the community engagement platform LocalCircles said less than one fourth of Indians, particularly the frontline workers who constituted just 8% of the total respondents, were willing to take the vaccine as soon as it became available.

The finding of the survey comes at a time when at least four vaccine candidates, Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna, Oxford AstraZeneca and Russian Sputnik V vaccine, have claimed over high efficacy rates, in some cases above 90% efficacy.

In fact, the UK government Wednesday authorised emergency use of Pfizer’s vaccine and vaccination in the country is expected to start sometime next week.

However, according to the survey of over 25,000 participants conducted by the LocalCircles between November 23 to 30, very few participants in India were willing to take the Covid vaccine as it became available.

Only 8% participants said they would take the vaccine from any channel as soon as it became available while 13% said they would take it only when it is provided through a healthcare channel.

11% participants said they would take the Covid shot if it was provided through a private healthcare channel, which underscores the citizens’ perception that the quality of healthcare services offered by the government hospitals are not up to the mark.

Significantly enough, a majority of the participants, 59% people, said they would not rush to take a vaccine to prevent Covid-19 infection as they remain skeptical of its efficacy and side effects.

Of the 59% participants who exhibited hesitancy, nearly half of the people, 28% of the total sample size, said they would wait for 3-6 months before taking the shot. Nearly one fourth of these, 13% of the total participants said they would wait for 6-12 months, while nearly 12% of the skeptics, 7% of the total sample size, said they would not take the vaccine next year and would take it in 2022.

While more than 18% participants who exhibited hesitancy, 11% of the total sample size said they can't say anything or decide about it.

Adverse news dampens the enthusiasm

According to Sachin Taparia, founder and CEO of the LocalCircles, the initial enthusiasm, which was there after three vaccine candidates - Pfizer, Moderna and Oxford AstraZeneca, showed high success rates, ebbed away as soon as the questions were raised about Oxford AstraZenea's efficacy rate, which was also followed by a complaint of adverse impact by one of the Indian volunteers of the vaccine.

"The hesitancy rate, which was 40-44% in the first three days of the survey, rose to 59% in the last five days of the survey," Sachin Taparia told ETV Bharat.

Threat of black marketing

Another issue that haunts the participants is the threat of black marketing of the vaccine. Nearly three-fourth of the participants expressed concerns that the vaccine may fall into the wrong hands if there is no dedicated tracking mechanism to track its end users.

The latest survey, which received more than 25,000 responses from 262 districts, suggests that 72% participants believe that there is a high risk of Covid vaccines being sold in black market when they become available.

As reported earlier by ETV Bharat, Remdesivir, which was seen as one the most promising treatment in the initial months after the outbreak of Covid-19 global pandemic, was readily available in black market in Delhi-NCR region at a hefty price whereas it was not available through the official channels.

In fact, nearly two-thirds of the respondents suggested that the government should defer the distribution of Covid vaccines till the time there is a foolproof digital tracking mechanism to track the vaccine from factory to the administration of citizens.

(Article by Krishnanand Tripathi)