According to a fresh survey, only 32% of general people want to get vaccinated for Covid-19 at the very beginning of the countrywide inoculation, which is slated to begin on February 7.
Shockingly, 16% do not want to get immunized at all, said researchers on Tuesday.
Dhaka University’s (DU) Institute of Health Economics (IHE) and Bangladesh Como Modeling Team jointly conducted the study – which had a total of 3,560 participants from 16 upazilas of eight divisions and two Dhaka city corporations – from January 10 to January 25.
They also found that around 52% of the respondents did not want to take the vaccine immediately as they were skeptical over the efficacy and safety of the vaccine doses and wanted to wait for a few weeks or months and if possible for a year following the start of the vaccination effort.
Speaking to Dhaka Tribune, Dr Shafiun Nahin Shimul, a member of the study team and an associate professor at DU’s IHE, said that 84% of the respondents said that they wanted the Covid-19 vaccine.
The study showed that rural people were more eager for the vaccine than those living in the urban areas.
Researchers said they would continue the study to explore the aftermath of the first vaccination run scheduled for launch on Wednesday in Dhaka and on February 7 across the country.
Dr Shafiun Shimul said that this was the first round of their study, adding, “We will start the second round of the study after vaccination starts.”
