Exploring reasons for support and hesitancy towards Covid-19 vaccines in Malaysia
List of Authors
  • Bibi Noraini Mohd Yusuf , Noorkartina Mohamad

Keyword
  • COVID-19 Vaccines, Hesitancy towards COVID-19 Vaccines and COVID-19 Vaccines Acceptance

Abstract
  • The Covid-19 pandemic started to spread in Malaysia since February 2020. As of 14 June 2021, there were 662,457 numbers of positive cases, with 586,864 cases of recovery, and 3,968 cases of death (Ministry of Health Malaysia, 2021). The Malaysian Government has set a target of 70% of the total population for vaccination under the National Immunisation Plan for COVID-19 for 2021 (Zainury, 2020). In this regard, the Government has stated that the Covid-19 vaccines will be given free of charge to all Malaysians who agree to accept the vaccines (Harian Metro Online, 2020). As a first step and in order to meet the at least 20% immunisation needs of Malaysians or 6.4 million populationin the country, the Government will obtain a supply of 12.8 million doses of the vaccines in 2021 from the UK Pharmaceutical Company and CONVAX Facility to meet an initial supply of 10% for the country's total population. This vaccine will only be given to Malaysians who agree to accept the vaccines. There has been a euphoria of excitement as well as public skepticism towards the vaccines. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the reasons for acceptance or hesitancy towards COVID-19 vaccines among Malaysians. This study used a survey method route to obtain preliminary data on this topic. Descriptive analyses were applied to categorise data and demographic information. Overall, a total of 236 respondents took part in the survey, where it was observed that 157 respondents (66.8%) were agreeable to accept the COVID-19 vaccines whilst 79 others (32.4%) disagreed. The reasons given by the respondents for receiving the vaccines wereself-protection, advice from theMinistry of Health or Government, to protect others from infection, belief in the benefits of the vaccines, and knowledge of the illness. Conversely, among the reasons for vaccines hesitances were being worried about side-effects of the vaccine, did not need a vaccine because they were not infected, not important even though being recommended by the health authorities, fear of getting sick during the vaccination process, perceived ineffectiveness of vaccine, perceived low severity of illness, and non-awareness of this disease/vaccine. This study contributes to the community towards the awareness of the COVID-19 vaccines and can be a source of references by policy-makers in formulating future communicable disease outbreak prevention campaigns and programs.

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