Semantron 23 Summer 2023

Vaccine hesitancy in Hong Kong

Figure 4c. Perceived effectivness to reduce risks of death in vaccinated and unvaccinated groups

Unvaccinated (N=110)

(Q7) If vaccines reduce the risks of death

Plan to Vaccine in 3 months (N=27)

Vaccinated (N=131)

No Plan of Vaccination (N=24)

Total Unvaccinated

Wait and See (N=59)

49 (44.55%)

7 (29.17%)

26 (44.07%)

16 (59.26%)

85 (64.89%)

Yes

38 (34.55%)

13 (54.17%)

21 (35.59%)

4 (14.81%)

20 (15.27%)

No

23 (20.91%)

4 (16.67%)

12 (20.34%)

7 (25.93%)

26 (19.85%)

I don’t know

Perceived barrier – perceived side effects

Looking at the perceived side effects of the vaccines, respondents were asked to grade the side effects of COVID-19 vaccines. They were given 6 options: ‘No side effects’, ‘little’, ‘moderate’, ‘severe’, ‘leading to death’, and ‘I don’t know’. For convenience’s sake, in the table below, ‘No side effects’, ‘little’, ‘moderate’, ‘severe’, ‘leading to death’, and ‘I don’t know’ are represented by 1,2,3,4,5,6 respectively. Most respondents considered the side effects of vaccines as little (p<0.05) or moderate (p<0.05) at 29.5% and 27.8% respectively. The median, the most representative opinion of all respondents, is that vaccines have moderate side effects. Amongst all respondents, a total of 40 respondents thought that vaccines have no side effects. They took up 30.5% of the vaccinated respondents. The most common answer, the mode, amidst the vaccinated people was ‘little’ with 49.6%. Thus, the median, the general opinion about vaccine’s side effect, is ‘little’, lower th an the average respondents. In contrast to the vaccinated group, only 5.5% of the unvaccinated group said that there were little side effects of vaccine. Most of them thought that the side effects were moderate (37.3%), severe (35.5%), and leading to death (21.8%). The median of the unvaccinated group is thus 4, meaning ‘severe’, which is lower than the total median. In the Resistant group, responses were predominantly ‘leading to death’, at about 75.0% so the general opinion about side effect is ‘leading to death’ (‘5’). Looking into the Hesitant group respondents mostly chose ‘severe’ with 27 people (45.8%), followed by ‘moderate’ with 26 people (44.1%). The median was ‘severe’ (‘4’). Similarly, in the Acceptant group, 51.9% said that side effects are ‘moderate’, and the median wa s ‘3’ meaning ‘moderate’. (Figure 4d)

Figure 4d. Perceived side effects in vaccinated and unvaccinated groups

Unvaccinated (N=110)

Plan to Vaccine in 3 months (N=27)

(Q8) Perceived side effects

Vaccinated (N=131)

No Plan of Vaccination (N=24)

Total

Total Unvaccinated

Wait and See (N=59)

0

No (‘1’)

0

0

0

40 (30.53%)

40 (16.00%)

Little (‘2’)

6 (5.54%)

0

0

6 (22.22%)

65

71 (29.46%)

168

Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs