Australian Vaccine Rollout Not Handled Well: Survey

SYDNEY — Almost two-thirds of Australians think the coronavirus vaccine rollout is not being handled well, as per a new study.

The Australian National University‘s Centre for Social Research and Methods, which surveyed more than 3000 adults, asked one group if the process was “going well” and another whether it was “fair”.

The survey found only 3.6 percent of people thought the vaccine rollout was going very well.

A further 32.7 percent believe it is going “somewhat well”, while 42.5 percent said it is going “not too well” and 21.2 percent “not going at all well”.

In the second group, 32.4 percent of Australians thought the process was “very fair”, and 53.3 percent “somewhat fair”. A further 11.1 percent said it was “not too fair ” and 3.2 percent “not at all fair”.

“These findings are extremely important as the government attempts to reconcile public sentiment and confidence in its vaccine program at a time when there are questions about how fast it is being delivered across our community,” study co-author Professor Nicholas Biddle said.

There were also patterns when political views were taken into account.

“Those who had said they would vote for a party grouping other than the coalition were less likely to think the process was going well,” Biddle said during an interaction.

“While still under half of the population, 45.3 percent of those who said they would vote for the coalition said the vaccine process was going well.

“This declines to 29.9 percent among Australians who said they would have voted Labor, 27 percent of those who said they would have voted for the Greens, 33.3 percent of those who would have voted for an ‘other’ party, and 25 percent of those who did not know who they would vote for.”

Between January and April, there was an increase in the number of Australians who say they would get a “safe and effective vaccine” — rising from 43.7 percent to 54.7 percent over the period.

However, it was still down on last August’s figure of 58.5 percent, as concerns were raised about side effects from the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The Australian National University Media tweeted ’64 percent of Australians think the Covid Vaccine roll-out is not being handled well, an Australian National University Expert study shows. Only 3.6 percent think it’s going well. The study reveals clear divisions in people’s attitudes to the roll-out based on political views.’

The study also estimated as of April 9.3 percent of Australia’s adult population had been vaccinated.

(Edited by Vaibhav Vishwanath Pawar and Praveen Pramod Tewari)