MANILA, Philippines — More than half of Filipinos are willing to be inoculated against coronavirus once a vaccine becomes available, a national pollster said Thursday night.
These findings come amid fears that the memory of a botched dengue vaccination program from three years ago will further complicate the national effort to vaccinate Filipinos against a deadly and lingering pandemic.
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According to the Social Weather Stations, 66% of adult Filipinos in September said they were willing to be take a coronavirus vaccine — in stark contrast to 62% of respondents in a survey from last year who said that Dengvaxia should not even be sold in the Philippines.
In its September 2019 survey, SWS asked the 37% of respondents who either said Dengvaxia should be sold or were undecided on the issue if they would be willing to take the vaccine and only 42% of them said that they were.
"This shows that Filipinos are more willing to get the COVID-19 vaccine than they were to get Dengvaxia," the pollster said.
The remaining 31% of respondents, however, showed an unwillingness to be inoculated, with 14% saying "probably not" and 17% saying "definitely not" to the question of whether they would take a coronavirus vaccine.
Other findings
Willingness to be be inoculated against coronavirus is highest in Mindanao at 73%, SWS found, trailed by the Visayas at 69%, then Metro Manila at 64%, and Balance Luzon at 61%.
Men were also found by the survey to have a higher willingness to take a COVID-19 vaccine at 71% compared to women among whom willingness to be vaccinated was at 60%.
By age group, those 25-34-year-olds posted the highest willingness to be inoculated at 70%.
By educational attainment, willingness to be vaccinated against COVID-19 hardly varied, ranging from 59 to 67%.
The poll, SWS said, was conducted from September 17 to 20 this year using mobile phones and computer-assisted telephone interviewing. There were 1,249 adult Filipino respondents nationwide.
— Bella Perez-Rubio