Main Concerns About COVID-19 Vaccines Are Over Safety and Necessity: UK Survey

Prime Minister Boris Johnson watches First Responder Caroline Cook getting her vaccination as he visits a vaccination centre at Ashton Stadium in Bristol, England, on Jan. 11, 2021. Eddie Mulholland/WPA Pool/Getty Images

The main reasons behind some British peoples’ reluctance to get a CCP virus vaccine are concerns over the jabs’ safety and necessity, a new survey has found.

According to survey results released on Friday by Britain’s Office for National Statistics (ONS), people are unsure about getting a COVID-19 jab mainly because they do not believe they are safe or they do not think it is necessary to get vaccinated.

The most common concern was about the safety of the vaccines, including their immediate side effects and longer-term impacts.

Survey respondents often talked about the speed with which the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus vaccines had been developed.

They were worried that not enough people had received the COVID-19 vaccines over a long enough time period to know that there were no long-term side effects.

“Because it’s such a new virus and the world doesn’t know enough about the virus itself ... if you don’t know enough about the virus itself how do you know enough about the vaccine and the long-term effects of it?” asked a female respondent in her late twenties.

A prominent concern was whether the COVID-19 vaccines affected fertility. For a few respondents to the survey, the fear about the potential harm to fertility was the main reason for their unwillingness to get a jab.

The second primary concern was that participants did not feel the vaccines were necessary. People who felt that way tend to think that their youth and health could protect themselves against the CCP virus, or that they had taken sufficient precautions against infection.

Religious or ethical concerns also featured in the survey results. Some participants expressed disgust that some of the vaccines had been developed using material from aborted foetuses.

A few participants said they refused to get a vaccine because of concerns that the jabs contained animal products or were tested on animals. One Muslim respondent said she did not think the jabs would be halal if they did contain animal products.

Hugh Stickland, head of strategy and engagement at the ONS, said: “What came across strongly was that participants had given considerable thought to COVID-19 vaccination.”

Overall, they did not show hesitation about vaccines in general and were positive about their role, with many participants stressing they were not “anti-vaccers,” the ONS said.

There was an appetite for more information on side effects, content, how the vaccines were developed, and the differences between them.

PA contributed to this report.