Vaccine hesitancy becoming more entrenched among unvaxxed

With leading epidemiologist Dr Jo Barnes on Friday warning about the adverse impact of long Covid, a new study by the University of Cape Town (UCT) has found that vaccine hesitancy was becoming entrenched among a sample of unvaccinated South Africans, with few believing that the vaccine was needed or that it was effective.

Barnes said long Covid was “another area of concern, as many of those who are permanently or seriously affected, will need rehabilitation or long-term care”.

“Public health facilities were under-provided before the pandemic began – so many of those sufferers may be left without adequate treatment,” said Barnes.

“Long Covid affects certain people in ways that we are slowly beginning to unravel and understand.

There is no reason to think that this debilitating condition will simply disappear when a new variant emerges.”

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The study, led by Dr Brendan Maughan-Brown and Dr Katherine Eyal of UCT’s Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, has found that attitudes towards vaccination were becoming entrenched, with the majority of people polled not intending to get vaccinated.

Out of a sample of 3 510 individuals surveyed in November and December last year about vaccination, 36% said “definitely not” and 24% said “only if required”.

Only 18% intended to get vaccinated “as soon as possible”.

“We observed a significant shift in intentions among the unvaccinated since survey 1 in November and December 2021, when the majority said either ‘as soon as possible’ or ‘wait and see’.

“In survey 2, only 29% thought they would be vaccinated by May, which is significantly lower than future intentions stated in survey 1,” said Maughan-Brown.

He said that high-risk groups were not more likely to want to be vaccinated than those without chronic conditions.

“Only 19% of respondents with chronic illness intend to get vaccinated as soon as possible,” he said. Eyal said access and incentives were still vital for vaccination.