Canberra, (Samajweekly) Almost two thirds of Australians think the country’s Covid-19 vaccine rollout is not going well, a survey has found.
Researchers from Australian National University (ANU) on Wednesday published the latest report from an ongoing survey of more than 3,000 adults’ attitudes towards the pandemic and vaccine rollout, the Xinhua news agency reported.
It found that only 3.7 per cent of respondents thought the vaccine program was going “very well” compared to 64 per cent who said it was going either “not too well” or “not well at all.”
As of Wednesday morning there had been more than 2.3 million Covid-19 vaccines administered in Australia.
Despite concerns over the speed of the rollout, the ANU survey found that the number of people willing to get a “safe and effective” vaccine has risen.
In April 54.7 per cent of respondents said they would definitely get a safe vaccine, up from 43.7 per cent in January.
“These findings are extremely important as the government attempts to reconcile public sentiment and confidence in its vaccine program at a time when there are questions about how fast it is being delivered across our community,” Nicholas Biddle, the co-author of the report, said in the press release.
However, in multicultural communities that speak a language other than English only 44.8 per cent of respondents said they would definitely get a safe vaccine.
“There is a real need from a policy perspective to make sure messages are consistent and sensitive to concerns of these communities,” Biddle said. “It is clear that there are lower rates and it shows that the relationship needs to be managed in such a way that the reluctance is overcome.”
