There is still considerable opposition from the British public to a compulsory vaccination programme against Covid-19 and to downloading a tracing app, polling by HOPE not hate Charitable Trust has found.
Growing criticism over the Government’s handling of the pandemic is only increasing scepticism about following official advice.
The poll of over 2,000 people, carried out in late May, found that health fears over the coronavirus – which has cost over 42,000 lives (and as many as 65,000) – is having little impact on how British people view having vaccinations.
While 82% of British people will normally have vaccinations, including 61% doing so “happily” and a further 21% grudgingly, 14% of people will avoid them.
When asked about having a future Covid-19 vaccination, 78% said that they would take it (61% happily and 17% grudgingly), and 12% would refuse.
Of this 12%, five percent say that they want nature to take its course, two percent will refuse because of a fear of needles, while one percent say that they already have had the virus. The remaining four percent believe there is malicious intent behind the vaccine.
While these figures are of course low, age is a key dividing line. Though older people are much more willing to have a Covid-19 vaccine, only 61% of 25-34 year olds think likewise and 10% of them think there is malicious intent behind any vaccine.
Meanwhile only half of people (56%) believe that a vaccine should be compulsory, and only 42% say they would be willing to download a Covid tracing app (a further 18% say they would do so grudgingly). A quarter (23%) say they would refuse to download the app at all.
Attitudes to any vaccination are increasingly influenced by declining trust in the Government’s handling of the pandemic. A third of people (31%) say they have less faith that any officially vaccine recommended will be effective or safe. Only slightly more (35%) disagree.
Scepticism about the motives behind those promoting vaccines is strong. Over a third (36%) believe that drug companies could cover up any safety issues around a coronavirus vaccine, in a bid to make huge profits and to allow the Government to claim credit for its introduction.
*Focaldata surveyed 2029 adults between 19 and 21 May 2020
As many as 3.6 million adults in the UK claim to have watched all or part of the anti-vaccination film Plandemic.
This is a truly worrying number, given that the 26-minute conspiracy film is only available online and has been removed by several social media platforms.
Polling by HOPE not hate Charitable Trust found that seven percent of people said that they had seen the film (89% saying had not). The remaining four percent were unsure.
Age is a key determiner in who has watched this film: 14% of 25-34 year olds and 11% of 35-44 year olds admitted they had.
Plandemic is a 26-minute conspiracy film which claims that Covid-19 is a creation of scientists and a vaccination is “a money-making enterprise that causes medical harm”. It is based on the testimony of discredited former medical researcher, Judy Mikovits.
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