32% individuals aged 18-30 years unsure or have no intention to get vaccinated — study

KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 12): 32% of the individuals aged between 18 and 30 years are either unsure or have no intention to get vaccinated, according to an IPSOS Malaysia study which was jointly undertaken with Monash University Malaysia, Sunway University and University Sains Malaysia.

The study, entitled "Perception towards Covid-19 vaccine" also revealed that 24% of the lower educated group and 21% of male respondents are also unsure or have no intention to protect themselves against Covid-19 via vaccination.

"Intention higher among older age groups who are more vulnerable to severe illness from Covid-19.

"Higher intention among females may be attributed to women being more health conscious than men.

"We also find that Malaysians in all groups recognise that, Covid-19 being a community driven disease, the community is the greater beneficiary of vaccination," it said.

The study pointed out that there is a need to improve awareness campaigns to inform about individual benefits and its subsequent spillover into community benefits to further boost vaccination intention.

It also added that a lower proportion of the youth has a positive attitude towards vaccination.

"Meanwhile, a higher proportion of women, the elderly and the highly educated have a positive attitude towards vaccination.

"Only 50% of individuals aged between 18 and 30 years have a positive attitude towards vaccination while 75% of individuals aged above 60 have a positive attitude towards vaccination," it said.

The study also unveiled that older people who are more at risk likely experience strong encouragement from their circle of family and friends to get vaccinated.

"Youths are less likely to get cues from their peer group who have lower intention to get vaccinated. Boosting acceptance among youths could have a self reinforcing effect.

"Awareness of the benefits vaccines bring for the community at large is high, but more work needs to be done to convince people across all age groups of the individual benefits of getting vaccinated and the subsequent spillover benefits into the community.

"No one is safe until everyone is safe," it added.

IPSOS said the study was conducted among 804 Malaysian adults aged 18 years and above, from June 11 to 20, 2021, and the sample was collected via an online panel that was skewed towards the more urban, connected population.

According to the latest data from the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force, Malaysia's daily vaccination rate increased to 497,352 doses yesterday (Aug 11), from 357,981 reported for the previous day.

Cumulatively, 25.86 million Covid-19 vaccine doses had been administered across the nation.

Out of the total, 16.35 million people or 50.1% of the country's population had received at least one dose of the vaccine, including 9.51 million or 29.1% who were fully inoculated, according to the latest updates on Twitter by the Special Committee for Ensuring Access to Covid-19 Vaccine Supply (JKJAV).

Malaysia's daily number of new Covid-19 cases breached the 20,000 level again yesterday, rising to 20,780 from 19,991 the day before as the nation saw more infected individuals in places including Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Johor.

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