Economy 22 December 2020, 8:09am

More than one third of Hungarians reject COVID-19 vaccine

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Only 15% of Hungarians are willing to have themselves vaccinated against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) once there is a shot available. Half of the country are uncertain whether they would vaccine themselves against the virus that claimed more than 8,000 lives in Hungary and over 1.7 million worldwide.

The share of uncertain respondents was high in a survey conducted by the Central Statistical Office (KSH) in the first week of December, with only 14.9% of them saying they would want to be inoculated against COVID-19. More than one third (35.6%) or respondents rejected the vaccine.

The main concern is how people perceive the safety of the vaccine. More than half of respondents to the survey do not take into consideration the opinion of anti-vaxxers at all and another quarter of them take it into consideration only to a small extent. Meanwhile, official government communication and information in the press influence more than two thirds of them, while reports in the social media sway the opinion of less than 60% of them.

Those over 64 years of age and those with tertiary education are leaning the most towards getting a COVID-19 shot, while unemployed people, young people and those with a lower level of education have the strongest aversion to the vaccine. The percentage of respondents rejecting the vaccine does not reach 50% in either groups.