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SINGAPORE – A recent survey commissioned by The Straits Times of 1,000 people aged 16 and over here found that roughly eight in 10 would say “yes” to getting vaccinated against Covid-19, with more than half of this group willing to receive it in the moment is available.
About 18 percent of those surveyed, however, would not want to receive a Covid-19 vaccine, regardless of whether one was available today or in six to 12 months, although about half were willing to consider having one eventually.
With Covid-19 vaccines underway in some countries and expected to start soon in Singapore, the question now is how open are people to vaccines.
The online survey, conducted by online market research firm Milieu Insight from Dec. 3-7, found that 48 percent will receive a vaccine when it becomes available, 34 percent will wait six to 12 months, and 9 percent will consider having one. Finally.
The remaining 9 percent said they will not take any hit from Covid-19.
The survey suggests that Singaporeans are much more open to Covid-19 vaccines than others in places like the United States, where recent data from the Pew Research Center showed that 60 percent of people would definitely or likely receive a coronavirus vaccine.
Still, this is a 51 percent increase from September, when people in the US were concerned that the Trump administration might rush a vaccine before it is properly tested.
Almost a year after the appearance of the new coronavirus, five Covid-19 vaccines have requested authorization for emergency use.
This same week, the UK started administering the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to healthcare workers and older people (codenamed BNT162b2), making it the first country in the world to authorize the injection for use. of emergency.
Since then, the vaccine has also been approved for use in Canada, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia.
Some of the initial caution about whether Covid-19 injections would be safe and effective could come from the language used about their development. This included terms such as “strain rate” and “stroke,” which appeared rushed or safety guidelines were being ignored, said Professor Paul Offit, director of the Center for Vaccine Education at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a US Food and member of the Vaccine Advisory Committee of the Drug Administration (FDA).
Similarly, the ST survey found that the main concern among those who doubted about having a Covid-19 vaccine was safety, including potential side effects. Others wanted to make sure it was effective.
Ms V. Lee, 44, who is in a managerial position and did not participate in the survey, said, “I will let others be the guinea pigs and wait six months to a year.”
She said she was cautious, especially after reading that two people in the UK had allergic reactions to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, although they both have a history of severe allergies. British health authorities have advised people with a history of anaphylaxis to take medicine or food that does not undergo the injection.
Side effects, such as injection site swelling or a low fever, can occur with any vaccine.
In the Pfizer-BioNTech trial, which had more than 40,000 volunteers, the most common side effect was pain at the injection site, reported by 84 percent of participants. This was followed by fatigue (63 percent), headache (55 percent), muscle pain (38 percent), chills (32 percent), and others.
Experts say the side effects are temporary and show that the body is developing immunity against Covid-19.
On Thursday (December 10), Professor Tan Chorh Chuan, chief health scientist at Singapore’s Ministry of Health, told reporters that regulators typically consider two aspects of side effects: the immediate and short-lived and the severe. .
“Even after vaccination begins, as in the UK, surveillance for side effects will continue quite intensively,” said Professor Tan, who is part of a 14-member vaccine advisory committee here.
Associate Professor Hsu Li Yang, vice dean for global health and head of the infectious diseases program at NUS ‘Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, said common and even rarer adverse events associated with immediate and early vaccine use virtually all would have had experienced by participants in Phase 3 trials, and reported.
“Late adverse events from vaccination are rare and difficult to prove, and are often associations due to chance rather than directly to the vaccine itself,” he said.
“Unfortunately, they are also difficult to disprove, as can be seen in the long-running MMR autism saga.”
Concerns about a possible link between the MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps, and rubella, and autism, arose in the late 1990s, though it was later disproven in multiple rigorous studies.
Professor Tan said that Covid-19 vaccines are new and, understandably, people have concerns.
“On the other hand, we have an established process to review new drugs, new vaccines. And the process must be done rigorously and exhaustively, to ensure that the things that are approved are safe and effective,” he said.
Vaccine advisers at the US FDA voted Thursday to recommend that the agency grant an emergency use authorization to the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, which has a 95% efficacy rate. They will meet again on December 17 to discuss the Moderna vaccine (94.1 percent effective), which is also pending authorization from the European Medicines Agency.
Although the full results of the completed Phase 3 trials are not yet publicly available, they are being evaluated by reputable regulatory agencies that will ensure that the criteria for safety and efficacy are met, Professor Hsu said.
The approval would indicate that a vaccine was safely administered to tens of thousands of people without serious adverse effects. However, in some places, vaccines are already being implemented without many people having been tested.
The Sputnik V vaccines from Russia and Sinopharm and Sinovac Biotech from China have received authorization for emergency use in their respective countries despite not completing Phase 3 trials, and are being implemented, Professor Hsu noted.
There are around 45 Covid-19 vaccine candidates currently in human trials, including one developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca.
Professor Tan said that Singapore will not depend on a single vaccine, as the production would not be enough.
And while it is rational from an individual perspective to wait up to a year before getting vaccinated, this choice affects society at large.
“If most people do this, we end up with a tragedy of the commons from the perspective of the Covid-19 vaccination program, because high vaccination rates are necessary for herd immunity,” said Professor Hsu.
At the moment, the long-term efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccine pioneers is unknown, but this is an issue that will only clear up with time, Professor Hsu said.
“I think it is important for those who doubt to know more about vaccines through reliable sources of information,” he said.
“They should also try to understand the specific problems that result in vaccine hesitancy and rejection, which may be different between people, and make objective attempts to address these problems, including talking to healthcare professionals.”
Vaccines are not completely risk-free, but neither is the option of not receiving one in this pandemic.
The risk of being severely affected by Covid-19 is much higher than with a vaccine, the experts noted.
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