MOSCOW, June 10. /TASS/. The majority of Russian citizens (60%) view the coronavirus vaccination drive positively, while 17% of the respondents have already taken the vaccine, says a poll by the Russia Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM), presented Thursday.
According to the poll, 55% of the respondents stated their readiness to take the vaccine while 16% said they would rather not vaccinate, and 26% stated they will definitely not take a vaccine. A total of 22% of respondents do not support mass vaccination.
When asked why they would like to take a vaccine shot, 13% respondents said they were afraid to get sick and infect other people, while 5% of respondents said this was the way to protect themselves and their close ones. Other reasons include trust in vaccination (4%), disease prevention (4%), a desire to avoid complications (2%) and others. Opponents of the vaccination note the insufficient research of the vaccine (8%), fear of side effects (8%). About 3% of respondents said they had already recovered from the infection and have antibodies, while 4% said that they could not take a vaccine shot due to poor health.
About 55% of respondents said they have heard about how exactly the vaccination takes place and consider this information sufficient, while 14% of respondents said they are unaware. The latter group has a significant share of young people aged between 18 and 24 (39%).
About 88% of respondents said they knew where to go for a vaccine shot. Some 71% agreed that the vaccination process was easy and did not take much time, while 17% of respondents consider it lengthy and complicated. About 58% of Russians believe that that the vaccine protects people from the disease and the risk of complications is minimal, while 24% believe that the vaccine rather creates complications than protects from the coronavirus.
The poll also indicates that 54% of respondents are afraid that they or their close ones can contract the infection, while about 20% of respondents believe this will not happen to them or their close ones. About 12% of respondents said either themselves or their close ones were either currently suffer from the disease or have already recovered from it.
The poll took place on June 6 and covered 1,600 respondents aged above 18 across Russia.