About 42% of Ukrainians not vaccinated against COVID-19 ready to do this - UNICEF
About 42.3% of Ukrainians not yet vaccinated against COVID-19 are ready to do this under certain conditions, 54.6% do not want to be vaccinated.
This is evidenced by the results of a study conducted by the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF).
According to the study, the most motivating factor for those wishing to be vaccinated is that vaccination can prevent COVID-19 or complications from the disease, as well as the fact that they will not infect other people, a press release from the Fund says.
UNICEF says that it is true, because vaccinated people are five times less likely to become infected and have a more than 10 times lower risk of hospitalization with COVID-19 than unvaccinated people.
In addition, according to the study, 65% of citizens who were vaccinated did so in order not to get sick and not have complications from COVID-19.
Only 14% said they did it on the recommendation of an employer or educational institution.
In general, 60% of all Ukrainians have a positive attitude towards vaccination against COVID-19 and 62% agree that it is necessary to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
UNICEF stressed that among those who have not yet been vaccinated and do not want to do so, the majority do not trust vaccines, believe that vaccination carries more risks than COVID-19 and do not want to experience a reaction to vaccines. Almost a quarter believe that they have medical contraindications for vaccination against COVID-19, although in fact, less than one percent of people may have absolute contraindications. Those who do not want to be vaccinated do not consider the pandemic as a serious threat or COVID-19 as such a disease that should be vaccinated against at all.
The Fund noted that, according to the results of the study, 87% of the vaccinated Ukrainians said that they listened to the doctor's advice on vaccination. Of those who have not yet been vaccinated, 77% heeded the doctor's advice to get vaccinated.
More than half of those who do not want to be vaccinated would not trust the doctor's advice on this matter, 48% did not discuss the issue of vaccination with a physician, and 6% were not recommended vaccination.
As of November 3, in Ukraine, more than 10.683 million people have already received at least the first dose, and 7.597 million received two doses.
The study was conducted in September-October 2021 (before the introduction of the red zones) by Info Sapiens research agency with the support of USAID and the World Bank.
The survey was conducted using the method of telephone interviews. Some 2,006 people over 18 years old were interviewed in all regions of Ukraine, with the exception of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the uncontrolled territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The sample represents the adult population of Ukraine and corresponds to the data of the State Statistics Service as of January 1, 2020 by gender, age, size of the settlement and macro-region.