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Only four out of 10 French people want to be vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a survey published today, which classifies France as a “world champion” among countries whose citizens do not want to be vaccinated, ahead of Russia and South Africa. France Press.
In France, where the vaccination campaign has just started, 40 percent of respondents would agree to get vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a study by Ipsos Global Advisor in association with the World Economic Forum. This is a big drop compared to their previous survey published in October (54 percent were willing to get vaccinated) and an even bigger drop than in August (59 percent were willing to get vaccinated).
France is not the only country where there are relatively few people willing to get vaccinated. According to the same survey, only 43 percent of Russians are ready to get vaccinated, compared to 53 percent of South Africans.
Among the countries least willing to get vaccinated are Japan (60 percent), Italy and Spain (62 percent) and Germany (65 percent).
At the other pole are China (80 percent), Brazil (78 percent) and the United Kingdom (77 percent), where the mass vaccination campaign began on December 8.
Cuba plans to begin immunizing its population against KOVID-19 with its own vaccine within six months, AFP reported. The director of the Finley Institute, specialized in the development and production of vaccines, Vicente Veres Bencomo assured during a visit to President Miguel Díaz-Canel that the start of the immunization campaign will be set in the first half of next year.
The institute is developing two candidate vaccines: one completes the first phase of the trials and the other begins the second phase, Bencomo said. He added that the vaccines will be tested on thousands of volunteers.
Two other Cuban candidate vaccines against COVID-19 are being developed at the National Center for Genetic and Biotechnological Engineering, AFP reported.
Cuba, with a population of 11.2 million, has so far managed to keep the epidemic under control. According to the latest official data, since Sunday there have been 11,434 cases of coronavirus in the communist island nation. 143 people died.
And Iran today began the “first phase” of clinical trials of its own coronavirus vaccine after the Islamic Republic became the most affected country in the Middle East, state television reported, cited by AFP.
“The first coronavirus vaccine developed by Iranian scientists was introduced by injecting three people,” public television said. The result will be released in 28 days. Another Iranian vaccine developed by the Razi Serum and Vaccine Research Institute may soon begin human trials, Minister Namaki said, according to AFP.
