INVESTIGATION: France is the country where the population is the most sceptical of the coronavirus Covid-19 vaccine according to a survey carried out in 15 countries and published on Tuesday
Only 4 in 10 French people want to be vaccinated against Covid-19, according to a survey * published on Tuesday. It gives France the place of “world champion” of the refractory countries, ahead of Russia and South Africa.
While the vaccination campaign has just started in France, 40% of French people would agree to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to this Ipsos Global Advisor study in partnership with the World Economic Forum, carried out in 15 countries. A large drop compared to their previous study published in October (54% inclined to be vaccinated) and even more compared to August (59%).
Russians and South Africans on the sceptics’ podium
The latest figures from Santé Publique France published in early December also showed a drop in vaccine intention, with 53% of those questioned saying they certainly or probably want to be vaccinated.
France is not the only country where vaccination intentions are relatively low. Thus, according to the Ipsos Global Advisor study, only 43% of Russians are ready to be vaccinated, and 53% of South Africans. Next come Japan (60%), Italy and Spain (62%), followed by Germany (65%).
China, Brazil and the UK more pro-vaccine
In contrast, China leads the countries where people are most likely to be vaccinated (80%), ahead of Brazil (78%) and the United Kingdom (77%), the first country to have started vaccinations on December 8th.
The United States, where a huge vaccination campaign has also started, is the only country where vaccination intentions are on the rise (69% today, 64% in October).
Fear of side effects and doubt about the effectiveness of the vaccine
In the 15 countries covered by the survey, the main reason for refractory people is fear of side effects (80% in South Korea, 76% in Japan, 72% in France). Doubt about effectiveness is the second reason in many countries, ahead of not feeling at risk.
Next is general opposition to vaccines, which concerns about a quarter of the population surveyed in Russia (26%) and South Africa (23%), but less than 10% in South Korea (7%), Japan (8%) and China (9%). In France, 14% of people questioned say they are anti-vaccine in general.
* The study was carried out in 15 countries via the Ipsos Global Advisor online platform between December 17 and 20 among 13,542 adults (including around a thousand in France, aged 18 to 74).
