The rate of vaccine hesitancy is low in South Africa, with 71% of people willing to take the Covid-19 jab.

The recent National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS)–Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (CRAM) Wave 4 study has found that over 71% of South Africans would take the Covid-19 vaccine, if it were available. Mass vaccination for Covid-19 is only expected to start in the country on 17 May.

Researchers collected the NIDS-CRAM Wave 4 data between 2 February and 10 March 2021. There were 5 629 successful Wave 4 interviews.

According to the research, local vaccine acceptance is higher than recent estimates from the United States and France, but lower than China, Brazil and the United Kingdom compared to other countries.

"The youth and those with only a primary school education were more likely to be vaccine hesitant," the research found.

People over 60 and those who have chronic conditions like HIV/Aids, TB, lung conditions, heart conditions or diabetes were less likely to be vaccine hesitant.

"Worryingly, those that are obese or experience hypertension were not more likely to accept a vaccine," the researchers said.

Young people, aged between 18-25, were much more likely to be vaccine hesitant than older adults.

"Specifically, just 63% of youth are willing to take a Covid-19 vaccine, as opposed to 72%–73% of individuals aged 35–59 years and those older than 60 years. Those most at risk of Covid-19 (those with chronic conditions and the elderly) were more willing than the general population to accept a vaccine."

Some of the reasons that participants gave for their vaccine hesitancy included not believing that it was effective, worrying about the side effects, or not trusting vaccines in general.

"Only 8% of those exhibiting vaccine hesitancy attributed their hesitancy to a low perceived risk of getting Covid-19. People who trust social media as an information source were significantly more likely to exhibit vaccine hesitancy."

When it comes to home language, the most vaccine hesitant people are Afrikaans speakers.

Forty-two percent of Afrikaans home language speakers are more likely to be vaccine-hesitant. This is much higher than the national average of 29% and significantly higher than seven of the 11 language groups.

The researchers found the lowest hesitancy rate among Tshivenda (18%), isiNdebele (19%) and isiXhosa, isiZulu and Sepedi respondents (all 25%).