Are people willing to get a COVID-19 vaccine? Here’s what a new global survey says

A new global survey shows 74% of people are willing to get a vaccine for COVID-19, but experts say that number is not high enough to stop the infection from spreading.

Ipsos questioned nearly 20,000 people from around the world for the World Economic Forum.

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• 97% of respondents in China said they’d get a vaccine.
• Only 54% percent of Russians are interested.
• In the U.S., two-thirds of those surveyed say they would get a vaccine.

The most common concern among Americans who are not interested in the vaccine is the possibility of side effects.

In the U.S., two vaccines are currently in phase three clinical trials, the step that determines whether a vaccine is effective and safe.

The head of the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Stephen Hahn, said the agency may allow drugmakers to put those vaccines on the market before completing the trials.

But some experts are concerned about rushing the development of a vaccine.

“If you’re going to give it to millions of people who are otherwise healthy, you have to have a much higher bar. And so what I would like to see is really robust data, ideally a full review before we go ahead and authorize any kind of a vaccine,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, of the Harvard Global Health Institute.

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Cox Media Group