Nearly 90 per cent of Australians say they will get a COVID-19 vaccine but don't expect one to be available this year.
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Ipsos surveyed nearly 20,000 adults from 27 countries on behalf of the World Economic Forum and found that globally, 74 per cent of respondents said they would get a vaccine for COVID-19 if it was available.
The most common reason given by those who would not get a vaccine were concerns about side effects (56 per cent) followed by doubt about its effectiveness (29 per cent).
Of the the 1000 Australians who took part in the survey, 88 per cent said they would get a COVID-19 vaccine if was available.
Of those, 59 per cent strongly agreed and 28 per cent somewhat agreed they would get vaccinated.
Australians were among the most likely to indicate they would get vaccinated for COVID-19, behind only China (97 per cent) and Brazil (88 per cent).
Globally, only 37 per cent strongly agreed, whereas 64 per cent of Brazilian and 59 per cent of Australian adults surveyed strongly agreed. In China this figure was only 38 per cent.
While Australians are among the most likely to say they would get vaccinated, they are among the least likely to believe - 27 per cent - that a vaccine will be available before the end of the year, compared with the global average of 41 per cent.
The key reasons for declining a vaccine were worries about side effects (46 per cent), doubt about its effectiveness (24 per cent), the perception of not being sufficiently at risk from COVID-19 (18 per cent), and general opposition to vaccines (18 per cent).
Ipsos Australia director David Elliott said health authorities could be optimistic that Australians would be keen to be inoculated when a vaccine was available.
"This has implications for the careful management of the rollout of the vaccine to cope with high levels of demand," he said.
"Additionally, health authorities will need to pay particular focus to educating the public about the potential side effects of any vaccine to ensure maximum take-up. Reassuring them of its effectiveness will also be important."
The survey was conducted by Ipsos between July 24 and August 7.
Australian Associated Press
