70% in S. Korea willing to get COVID-19 vaccine

Jan 04, 2021, 09:18 am

AsiaToday reporter Lee Jang-won

Nearly seventy percent of South Koreans in the latest poll say they would get a COVID-19 vaccine. Also, seven out of ten people say they can “trust” and be confident in COVID-19 vaccines that will be introduced in the country. However, only three out of ten people believe things will go back to how it was before the COVID-19 crisis started, and more than half of people say things will be tougher than last year economically and socially.

In the survey conducted from Dec. 24-26 by pollster R&Search on behalf of AsiaToday, 69.9 percent of participants said they are willing to take a COVID-19 vaccine. The survey of 1,020 adults across the country found that 19.6 percent said they will not take a COVID-19 vaccine. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points with a confidential level of 95 percent.

The survey found more number of older adults felt the need for vaccination, with 79.6 percent of people in their 50s and 79.2 percent of those in their 60s and older saying they would get vaccinated. There was no significant difference among respondents with different supporting parties, as 70.6 percent of supporters of the ruling Democratic Party (DP) and 77.4 percent of supporters of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) were willing to get vaccinated.

68.2 percent say they trust vaccines in general, with 11.6 percent having a great deal of confidence in vaccines. On the other hand, 24.4 percent say they don’t trust vaccines in general, with 18 percent not trusting vaccines and 6.4 percent not trusting at all. As for the amount of vaccines secured, more than half of participants (58.5%) said vaccines are insufficient, compared to 28.2% of participants who said vaccines are enough.

Regarding the government’s COVID-19 response, 54.0 percent of participants gave the government negative reviews while 44 percent gave positive rate. Such response seems to be result of resurgence of coronavirus across the country. Political stance seemingly played a large part in evaluating the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic as more than 70 percent of Honam residents and Democrats rated the government’s response positively.

Regarding the disclosure of confirmed patients’ travel routes, 49.3 percent of South Koreans said the disclosure system should be strengthened as an essential system. However, 36.6 percent said personal information should be removed when revealing the epidemiological investigation result. Only 6.4 percent said the disclosure system should be eliminated in order to protect the basic rights of the people.

Regarding the economic and social outlook for 2021, more than half of respondents (51.9%) said this year would be tougher than 2020 while 42.7 percent said this year would be better than the previous one. More than half of South Koreans (56.6%) said things would not be able to go back to a “pre-COVID normal”. Three out of ten people (31.1%) said things would go back to how things were before the pandemic.

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