Vaccine hesitancy in Hong Kong
Moderate (‘3’)
41 (37.27%)
1 (4.17%)
26 (44.07%)
14 (51.85%)
26 (19.85%)
67 (27.80%)
Severe (‘4’)
39 (35.45%%)
5 (20.83%)
27 (45.76%)
7 (25.93%)
0
39 (16.18%)
Leading to death (‘5’)
24 (21.83%)
18 (75.00%)
6 (10.17%)
0
0
24 (9.96%)
Knowledge of vaccines: misinformation vs collective responsibility
People were asked whether vaccination reduced the risk of transmission. The correct answer to this question is obviously ‘yes’ , since after the vaccine is injected and an immune response is prompted, once that person is infected with COVID-19, antibodies can be produced much more quickly, reducing viral load and viral shedding, hence reducing the risk of transmission and strengthen the protection to others. However, shockingly, those who got it right (44.0%) were nearly as much as those who got it wrong (42.3%). This indisputable fact has clearly not yet been well known by the elderly and many still had a substantial degree of misunderstanding about COVID-19 vaccines. First of all, Figures 5a and Figure 5b illustrate that vaccinated respondents usually had the correct information about vaccines compared to those who were not vaccinated. Among the vaccinated respondents, more than half of them (55.0%) answered correctly while just as much unvaccinated respondents (54.6%) mistakenly chose ‘no’ (p<0.05).
Figure 5a. Knowledge of vaccines in vaccinated and unvaccinated groups
Knowledge of vaccines in Vaccinated and Unvaccinated Groups
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Don’t know
No
Plan to vaccinate in 3 months
Yes
No plan of vaccination
Wait and See
Vaccinated
Don’t know
3
10
3
17
No
18
30
12
42
Yes
3
19
12
72
Vaccine hestiancy from resistant, hesitant, to acceptant, and vaccinated
Secondly, the more acceptant the respondents were to vaccines, the more likely they would have the correct knowledge. Comparing to the vaccinated group with 55.0% of correct answers and 32.1% wrong, 44.4% of the Acceptant group were correct and 44.4% wrong, making it a 50-50 split between
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