Even Though Jokowi Has Been Vaccinated, 41 Percent Of The Public Are Still Afraid Of The COVID-19 Vaccination

The President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo when vaccinated against COVID-19. (Photo: Doc. Setkab)

JAKARTA - Some time ago, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) became the first person to receive the COVID-19 vaccination. The hope is that after becoming the first vaccine recipients, many people will want to carry out this priority government program in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

It's just that this hope is not by the facts obtained by the Indonesian Political Indicators agency which states that 41 percent of the total 1,200 respondents chose not to be vaccinated, with details of 32.1 percent of respondents being less willing and the remaining 8.9 percent admitting that they were very unwilling.

Meanwhile, the group of respondents who were willing to be vaccinated against COVID-19 was 54.9 percent. With details, 39.1 percent of respondents said they were quite willing, and 15.8 percent were very willing to be vaccinated.

"What surprised me personally, even though the survey was carried out after the president (Jokowi) himself became the first person to be vaccinated, there were still many who were unwilling. A total of 41 percent were less willing or very unwilling", said Executive Director of Indonesian Political Indicators Burhanuddin Muhtadi at the time. delivered the presentation online, Sunday, February 21.

He even said that the effect of Jokowi and several figures who received the vaccine first in January was only able to reduce that number by two percent. Because, in December 2020, the Indicator survey recorded that 43 percent of respondents were unwilling or very unwilling to be vaccinated.

"So it only decreased by two percent. The effect of President Jokowi is there but the effect is only two percent of reducing those who were initially unwilling to become willing", he said.

Furthermore, he said the number who were willing to be vaccinated was still very small compared to those who refused the COVID-19 vaccine. Plus there is still 4.2 percent of respondents who did not answer.

"So 41 percent in (survey) in February is not a small number. This could be a problem because vaccination is basically talking about the common interest. For herd immunity, it cannot be achieved if four out of 10 people are not willing," he said.

The reasons for respondents who refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19 were 54.2 percent of the side effects of the vaccine that had not been confirmed. Then the effectiveness of the vaccine is 27 percent, feel healthy or don't need 23.8 percent, and if you have to pay 17.3 percent.

The Indonesian Political Indicator Survey was conducted in the range 1-3 February 2021. The survey was conducted using telephone contact with respondents and face to face.

The number of samples randomly selected to be called was 7,604 data, and those who were successfully interviewed during the survey duration were 1,200 respondents.

The survey used the simple random sampling method, the sample size of 1,200 respondents had a margin of error of approximately 2.9 percent at a 95 percent confidence level. Samples come from all provinces that are proportionally distributed.