Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Drops among Indonesians: Health Ministry

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Indonesia's Health Ministry announced the results of a survey  regarding people’s attitudes toward the Covid-19 vaccination program. The survey showed the rate of people's willingness to be vaccinated against the Covid-19 reached 80.8 percent.

"The percentage of people who are doubtful about getting the vaccine has decreased to 19.2 percent from 28.6 percent from January to March 2021. This shows that our program to raise public awareness of the importance of the vaccination is going well," said Health Ministry Secretary General, Oscar Primadi, during an interview with Kompas TV Thursday, May 13.

The results of the survey indicate good news to jointly break the chain of transmission of the Covid-19. Now that vaccines are being rapidly rolled out covering a large amount of the population in hopes that the pandemic may eventually come to an end.

Also read: BPOM: Indonesias Merah Putih Vaccine to Kick Off Production in 2022

Head of Public Policy for Facebook in Indonesia, Ruben Hattari, said the survey was conducted by the University of Maryland in partnership with Facebook and involved 178,988 respondents in the period January 10 to March 31 this year.

The survey described the level of discipline in implementing health protocols and the level of public willingness to join the Covid-19 vaccination program.

It also measured self-reported levels of doubt on the Covid-19 vaccine, reasons for doubt, reliable sources of information, and key behaviors such as wearing masks and social distancing in public space.

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Besides Indonesia, Oscar said, people from 200 countries and country states also participated in the survey. The data collected in the survey maintained the privacy of all respondents.

"This survey was conducted by prioritizing the privacy of the respondents and is one of the surveys we conducted to tackle the Covid-19," said Ruben.

Several vaccines for Covid-19 are currently being developed in many countries, including Indonesia. Vaccines are key to developing herd immunity, and thus keeping the most vulnerable people healthy, while also accelerating the return of normalcy in social and economic interactions.

(Editor: Diamanty Meiliana)

Source: https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2021/05/14/08003191/kemenkes-sebut-keraguan-masyarakat-untuk-divaksin-menurun