Indicator Survey: More People Averse To Booster Vaccination

JAKARTA - The Indonesian Political Indicator survey institute released a poll regarding the development of the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia, one of which is regarding the third dose or booster vaccination.

Executive Director of Indicators Burhanuddin Muhtadi explained that the survey showed the majority of respondents were reluctant to receive booster vaccinations.

"About the booster, 54.8 percent disagreed, 41.7 percent agreed. In fact, even when given a booster, more people disagreed than agreed," said Burhanuddin in a virtual survey presentation, Sunday, January 9.

In addition to boosters, respondents were also asked to provide their views on vaccination for children aged 3 to 12 years. They also tend to disagree more, which is 63 percent. Meanwhile, only 34 percent agreed.

Burhanuddin views, this could be a separate problem from the implementation of the COVID-19 vaccination. Burhanuddin said, if many people are reluctant to participate in government vaccination programs such as booster and child vaccination, there is a potential for vaccine stocks to expire.

"This has caused issues related to several vaccines that are not immediately distributed, they have the potential to expire because it is increasingly difficult to find people who are willing to be vaccinated. While the vaccine is there, but if people psychologically refuse, that will also be a problem," explained Burhanuddin.

Therefore, Burhanuddin asked the government to immediately find a solution to the public's reluctance to be vaccinated in order to control the pandemic in the country.

"This is a serious issue that we think must be addressed immediately, because after all this problem can become a separate problem apart from technical issues related to the availability of vaccines and vaccinators. If people don't agree, it's a hassle," he said.

It is known that this survey was conducted in the period from 16 to 11 December 2021 to respondents of Indonesian citizens who were 17 years old or older, or were already married when the survey was conducted.

The survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews with 1,220 randomly selected respondents. The margin of error for this survey is estimated at around 2.9 percent and the survey confidence level is 95 percent.