Coronavirus: majority would pay for early vaccine

The vast majority of Australians are willing to take a COVID-19 vaccine and most would pay to jump the queue, international polling shows.

Polling conducted by Crosby Textor in Australia, the United States, Britain, Hong Kong, India and the United Arab Emirates found 72 per cent of Australians were willing to take the vaccine. Picture: AFP

The vast majority of Australians are willing to take a COVID-19 vaccine and most would pay to jump the queue if the price was right, international polling shows.

And just 13 per cent of Australians say they wouldn’t take the coronavirus vaccine when it becomes available, compared with almost one in four Americans.

Polling conducted by Crosby Textor in Australia, the United States, Britain, Hong Kong, India and the United Arab Emirates found 72 per cent of Australians were willing to take the vaccine, compared with 57 per cent in the US. It also found 12 per cent of Australians would pay to be vaccinated early at any price, and another 43 per cent would take the fast track depending on the cost, with most willing to pay up to $170 for an early shot.

Two vaccines, manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna, have been given emergency approval by the US Food and Drug Administration, although a rollout in Australia is not expected until next year.

The poll of 500 people taken in early December, shows Australians believe they are in a different stage of the pandemic and that the country has handled the outbreak more successfully than others.

Australians are the most bullish about having the virus under control, with 43 per cent saying they expect further waves of COVID-19 compared with 75 per cent for the US, 73 per cent for the UK, and 66 per cent for India.

Catherine Douglas, managing director of CT Group’s Australian research and campaigns business, said: “Australians have shown themselves to be able to work together during the pandemic, and pride in what’s been achieved is high. They are cautiously supportive of the vaccine, but just want to be sure it’s safe and effective before committing to taking it.

“Notwithstanding this latest outbreak in Sydney, Australians see we’ve had a good run relative to other countries, so there isn’t the same urgency to commit to taking the vaccine.”

The ability to handle the ­pandemic successfully is reflected in a comparison of opinion polls about the performance of governments.

Ms Douglas said Australia was in a strong position to roll out a vaccine safely because of the way governments here had managed the pandemic.

A significant proportion of Australian office workers have now returned to their workplace at least part time, the survey shows, with 44 per cent reporting they are back full-time and another 27 per cent part-time.

Less than 30 per cent are continuing to work remotely, compared with 62 per cent of office workers in the UK and 40 per cent in the US.

But 46 per cent of Australians say they won’t return to the workplace full-time until they have had the vaccine. “Australians are very upbeat about the recovery now, but the research also clearly suggests people are not quite ready to return to doing things as they were pre-COVID,” Ms Douglas said.

 

“Only 44 per cent of people say their ‘normal working life’ will eventually return to the way it was before. Even if that number climbs from here, it is clear that many Australians are thinking about lasting changes to the rhythm of daily life.”

The survey also found more Australians (51 per cent) believed the vaccine should be optional than compulsory (40 per cent).

And more than six in 10 Australians supported the introduction of a vaccination passport, while just 14 per cent were opposed.