Poll shows more mistrust of Russia, China vaccines

It’s been found that people across the world are likely to say yes to getting a COVID-19 vaccine, but trust levels vary when it comes to where it’s been developed.

An international survey of nearly 19,000 people conduct by the polling company YouGov found that the public became more wary of shots made in China or Russia than those developed in Germany or the United States.

The overall results were shared exclusively with Reuters and showed that 73% of Britons and 70% of Danes were the most willing to take the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available to them.

Conversely, more than a third of people surveyed in Poland and almost half in France - 37% and 48% respectively - said they would say no to the shot if offered it.

In the United States, just less than half of those polled said they would be willing to have the vaccine.

The survey also asked about views on compulsory vaccines - a policy being discussed by some governments to boost the population's immunity. It was most popular in India at 77%, but only backed by 29% of Americans.

Previous studies have found that conspiracy theories and misinformation fuels mistrust and raises concerns of not enough overall uptake to fully protect communities from the disease.

Friday's (Janaury 15) YouGov poll found that despite many who said they would not take the COVID-19 vaccine now, most gave their reason as preferring to wait and see if the vaccines were safe, showing that relatively few were driven by entrenched "anti-vaxxer" views.