The majority of vaccine skeptics in Poland are of the opinion that the COVID-19 vaccine was created too quickly and has not been tested enough, reports an Institute for Social Research and Market (IBRiS) survey. The newest survey conducted by IBRiS for Rzeczpospolita shows that there are almost as many supporters of a coronavirus vaccination in Poland as there are opponents. Forty-seven percent of Poles positively answered the question of whether they would vaccinate themselves whereas 44 percent responded that they would not. Another nine percent did not have an opinion.
The survey also checked how information sources influence people’s position on vaccination. The persons most eager to get vaccinated are those who base their worldview on newspapers, television and magazines, with 64 percent in this group have declared that they would get a vaccine. On the other hand, among the people whose main information sources are social media, only 46 percent would get vaccinated. 44 percent of Poles do not want to be vaccinated. The approach to vaccination also changes based on age. The youngest people are those least likely to get vaccinated. Only 29 percent of people aged 18 to 29 and those between 30 and 39 would get a vaccine. Out of those aged between 40 and 49, 43 percent said they would get a vaccine. Among those aged 50 to 59, 50 percent support vaccination. Those most likely to get a vaccine are people aged 60 to 69 (59 percent) and above 70 (67 percent). Political affiliations of respondents also play an important role. The supporters of the Left have the highest number of pro-vaccine supporters at 82 percent. Sixty-five percent of Civic Coalition (KO) voters would get a vaccine, as would 56 percent of Law and Justice (PiS) supporters and 50 percent of the voters of the Polish People’s Party (PSL). Only 5 percent of the Confederation’s voters would want to get vaccinated. The most important argument for people opposed to getting vaccinated is the speed at which the vaccine was developed. They believe that because it was so quickly developed that it has not been sufficiently tested. Forty-two percent of vaccination opponents share this view and 17 percent among them claim that since they have not gotten flu vaccines, they do not intend to get a COVID-19 one. Fifteen percent choose a “healthy lifestyle” instead of a vaccine. The supporters of vaccines, on the other hand, say that they will accept a vaccine because they fear for the lives of their loved ones (20 percent). For 16 percent, a vaccine is a social obligation and 14 percent will do so out of fear of being infected. IBRiS head Marcin Duma stated that the company researches the anti-vaccine index very regularly. “It is shaping out similarly to the one in France and Russia. We must be clear: they are not the peak of pro-vaccine societies. For example, Italians who were much more harshly affected by the virus, more often declare readiness to get vaccinated,” he said. Duma added that the fears of the anti-vaccination group are very hard to verify and address. He explained that it was difficult to get rid of fear which stems worries that the vaccine is untested or made accessible too quickly. “Arguments do not work here, because it is true that the vaccine was quickly produced and nothing that explains why it happened in this way will help,” he said.
