QCOSTARICA – Seven out of ten people in Costa Rica accept getting the covid-19 vaccine, while the other three have doubts, reject it or have conditions for it.
This is one of the findings of the most recent public opinion survey by the Center for Political Research and Studies (CIEP) of the University of Costa Rica (UCR).
The study explored people’s attitudes towards vaccines against the new coronavirus.
When the respondents were asked what their reaction would be if they were called to go to the nearest Ebáis to be vaccinated, 69% answered that they are already been vaccinated or that they would go to get vaccinated.
For the rest, 15% said they would have doubts about receiving the vaccine, 13% said they would not be vaccinated at all, and finally, 2% of the people consulted conditioned their decision to get vaccinated according to the type of vaccine they were given.
According to the CIEP survey, the willingness to get vaccinated is much higher among people with a college education and those over 55 years of age.
The acceptance rate reaches 81% in the group of respondents with higher education and 78% in the group over 55 years of age.
The segment with doubts is 17% among the from 18 to 34 years old age group, and to 18% among those who only have an elementary school education.
Meanwhile, the group that rejects the vaccine is stronger in people between 35 and 54 years old and with secondary education, with 15% in both cases.
To date, 605,000 people have received at least one dose of the covid-19 vaccine; of those, 345,153 people already have had both doses.
Regarding the vaccination program in general, in April 2019, 96% of people surveyed in Costa Rica supported it, while 4% disapproved.
“Currently, in the framework of the coronavirus in the United States, anti-vaccine activists continue to promote speeches and demonstrations to discredit vaccination campaigns against covid-19. In this context, the study raised the same query about the approval or disapproval of people to be vaccinated when appropriate. On this occasion, support continues to be the majority with 83% who approve of the application of vaccines against 11% who disapprove. Furthermore, there are no significant differences between age groups and educational level,” states the Costa Rica survey.
President Carlos Alvarado said this week he expects the country to achieve herd immunity by the last quarter of 2021.
Coronavirus, main problem
The same study shows that the coronavirus was once again positioned as the main problem in the country, according to the perception of public opinion, with 21.7% of mentions, even above unemployment, which received 20%.
The survey was prepared through calls to people over 18 years of age with a cell phone, which covers approximately 97.5% of the population.
The consultations were made between April 26 and 30, 2021.
The study has a 95% confidence level and has a margin of error of +/- 3.4 percentage points.
