Educated, white South Africans less likely to take Covid-19 vaccine – survey

Political affiliation and distrust of the government have been raised as potential reasons why white, educated South Africans are unwilling to receive a Covid-19 vaccine, while their black counterparts are much more keen on getting the jab.

67% of adult South Africans have indicated they they would definitely or probably take the Covid-19 vaccine, according to the latest round of the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and Human Sciences Research Council’s (HSRC’s) Covid-19 Democracy Survey. This amounts to two out of three adults being willing to take the anticipated vaccine.

The findings, which surveyed more than 10,000 respondents between December 2020 and January 2021, showed that race, education and age played a role in shaping vaccine acceptance, with 45% of white adults reluctant to get vaccinated, compared to 31% of black adults.

About 72% of the respondents without matric were more accepting, compared to 59% of those who were tertiary educated. 74% of the older generation, aged 55 and older, were more accepting compared to 63% of those aged between 18 and 24.

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The most common reasons stated for rejecting the vaccine were supposed side effects, questions over its effectiveness, and uncertainty about testing, with many respondents stating they needed more information. 10% of the respondents made reference to conspiracy theories surrounding the vaccine.

Political affiliation, however, also appeared to played a part, with 78% of ANC supporters being more accepting, then 65% for the DA and 62% for the EFF. Acceptance was also much lower in those who had no intention to vote.

UJ’s Professor Kate Alexander said there was a link between level of education, race and political party support, which contributed to the outcome of the survey.

The ANC has an overwhelmingly black South African support base, who are often from poorer communities. They also hold much more sway with older generation, unlike the DA and EFF.

“There are possibilities and ways we might be able to explain this…” Alexander explained.

“The distinction here of people with tertiary level education and those who left matric – people with university level education are not necessarily highly qualified, and they will be sceptical and quite likely they don’t identify with the political party and they may well be people who engage with social media more.”

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“It’s possible that the poorer people tend to get their information more from the TV and radio, where to an extent that if there is messaging at all on this issue, it has been in favour of vaccination partly because of the key factor that people watch the President every now and then,” she said.

The perception of how President Cyril Ramaphosa and government have handled the pandemic played a role in vaccine acceptance, with those who thought Ramaphosa was doing a bad job less likely to accept the vaccine. Only 36% of those stating the president was doing a “bad job” were willing to accept the vaccine as compared to 73% who thought he was doing a “good job”.

Professor Narnia Bohler-Muller of the HSRC said hesitancy among respondents was due to concerns about the vaccine development and roll-out.

“Our analysis shows that vaccine hesitancy comes down to a range of legitimate concerns about a vaccine developed and rolled out in record time, as well as some distrust in the government and corporations. We need a vaccine literacy campaign that provides factual information that will sway the waverers,” she said.

rorisangk@citizen.co.za

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