KUCHING: A majority of respondents are prepared to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, according to a recent survey by the Ministry of Health (MoH).
Sixty-seven percent of the respondents said they would agree to receive the vaccine.
Seventeen percent were unsure about the vaccine, and 16 percent said they would reject it.
The survey was conducted online from Dec 21 to 28 last year, and 212,006 Malaysians participated.
“MoH understands the concerns and worries about the safety, efficacy and side effects of Covid-19 vaccine, and will take the necessary steps, including channelling information that is accurate and transparent,” it said in a Facebook post yesterday (Dec 31).
Of the 67 percent respondents who agreed to get the vaccine, the survey showed that 95.7 percent felt the vaccines are safe, 89.6 percent said they are confident that it would be effective to prevent infection, and 67.4 percent said they have no reservation on the ingredients of the vaccines.
With regard to the 16 percent of those who refused to get the vaccine, the survey showed that 96.1 percent were worried about vaccines’ side effects, 84.6 percent have reservation on the vaccines’ ingredients and 82.8 percent felt that the vaccines were unsafe.
On those who are unsure, 83.2 percent were worried about the side effects, 78.0 percent said they are not sure about its efficacy and 71.0 percent were unsure whether the vaccines were safe.
The government’s target is to vaccinate 70 percent of the Malaysian population in the first quarter of this year which will focus on adults to enable the country to reach the herd immunity threshold.
Malaysian will also get the vaccine for free.
