Survey shows lack of confidence in Government’s handling of vaccinations

Despite the mass vaccination campaign that has seen around 900,000 more vaccinations given, a lack of confidence in the government’s approach to Covid vaccinations still reigns.

According to a new survey by the Suan Dusit Rajabhat University (AKA the Suan Dusit Poll), over half of respondents had doubts that government could reach its stated goal of inoculating 50 million people by the end of 2021.

The online poll was taken from June 7 to June 10 on 1,450 people in Thailand.

Some of the results of the survey are:

• 66.87% said the policy should be implemented as soon as possible
• 62.44% said the issue was important and would affect people’s livelihoods
• 61.91% wanted vaccinations to be fairly expedited for all
• 60.29% thought there should be a choice of vaccines with differing efficacy
• 56.27% said communications about vaccines must be clear, not confusing.

On the issues of confidence in the government, the survey shows:

• 59.05%:were not confident
• 36.36% having little confidence
• 22.69% have no confidence at all
• 30.26% were fairly confident
• 10.69% highly confident.

On the question of whether the government could vaccinate 50 million people by the end of 2021, the survey shows:

• 57.61% thought it was unlikely to achieve the goal
• 42.39% believed it would be able to do so.

The respondents could pick from a list of reasons they believed were responsible for vaccine’s rollout issues, the respondents say:

• 77.87% say the issue is insufficient supplies of vaccines and a limited number of manufacturers
• 67.29% say people were still concerned about side-effects of the vaccines
• 65.56% cite a slow distribution of vaccines
• 62.79% say information given by the government was not clear, causing confusion
• 58.58% said there was too much rumour-mongering and fake news.

On how the government could improve the situation, respondents say:

• 8.74% say vaccines from several different manufacturers should be imported and in larger quantities
• 63.92% say there should be an effective plan for the distribution of vaccines
• 60.18% say the government must give clear information on the issue without frequent changes
• 59.28% say risk groups should be properly prioritised for vaccination;
• 56.79% say the private sector should be allowed to import vaccines.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post