An e-survey conducted by LocalCircles, a social media platform, has found that 61 per cent of the respondents are skeptical about taking a shot of the vaccine if it gets introduced in the early part of 2021. While COVID-19 vaccines are at an experimental stage, and state governments are announcing free vaccination for their residents, 51 per cent of the survey respondents said they will not rush to vaccinate themselves due to unknowns associated with it. Another 10 per cent said they will not take it at all in 2021.
The survey received over 25,000 responses from over 225 districts of India.
To the question, "How long do you think you can easily sustain this post COVID way of living with restriction?" 38 per cent of the 8,496 respondents said they are "willing to live the COVID-19 way of living for as long as it takes". Another 23 per cent said they are "already tired of the restrictions".
One of the questions posed by LocalCircles was about how they feel mentally after eight months into the COVID-19 pandemic. Of 8,590 respondents, 33 per cent said they feel "anxious or worried" and 19 per cent said "calm and happy". Twenty per cent said they were feeling "depressed".
In July, LocalCircles had raised the issue of an urgent need to develop serial number tracking of COVID-19 vaccine to avoid any black marketing and to track the vaccine from point of manufacturing to the point of administration with Department of Pharmaceuticals and Ministry of Health. The government later confirmed that the suggestion is being evaluated.
The 25,000 responses were received from citizens spread across 225 districts of India. As many as 72 percent respondents were men and 54 per cent of total respondents were from tier-1 cities.