Delta Covid-19 variant persuading the jab-hesitant to change their minds

The Delta strain is a champion marketer for vaccine acceptance, with hesitancy plummeting in Victoria as Covid-19 infections rise.

The new Mount Warren Park vaccination centre in Brisbane. Picture: Sarah Marshall

The Delta strain is proving to be a champion marketer for vaccine acceptance, with hesitancy plummeting in Victoria as Covid-19 infections rise in the current outbreak.

The latest Melbourne Institute vaccine hesitancy tracker shows a mere 7 per cent of those surveyed in Victoria at the weekend were unwilling to be vaccinated, down from almost 18 per cent in mid-June. Across Australia, vaccine hesitancy has dropped from 20.3 per cent in the previous survey on August 20 to 16.7 per cent, with 9.4 per cent unwilling to be vaccinated and 7.3 per cent who don’t know.

Vaccine acceptance is highest in NSW, Victoria and South Australia, where authorities have responded to outbreaks of the Delta variant with strict lockdowns.

Measured hesitancy continues to be highest in Western Australia (22.1 per cent) and Queensland (21.6 per cent). Accordingly, vaccination rates in those states lag the rest of the nation, with fewer than 40 per cent of their eligible populations receiving two jabs compared with 50 per cent in NSW and Tasmania, and almost 54 per cent in the ACT.

Anthony Scott, co-ordinator of the institute’s health program, said there was a “stronger melting pot for a change” here to reduce hesitancy compared with the US and UK, due to the confluence of Delta outbreaks, vaccine supply, and social and work opportunities to be limited to the fully vaccinated.

“For people who didn’t want to be vaccinated for various reasons, the message is coming through that you’re going to get Covid at some point, and it’s now more prevalent in the young, and you can get quite sick,” Professor Scott told The Australian

He said Australia would be likely to meet the 80 per cent fully vaccinated target under national cabinet’s reopening plan as long as there was adequate supply of approved vaccines.

The institute survey of 1200 adults showed hesitancy was at 35.5 per cent in mid-May, the highest rate since the tracker began last October.

Hesitancy has fallen most during the recent outbreaks in the 18 to 44 age bracket, where vaccine hesitancy is highest. Those 65 and above have consistently shown the lowest hesitancy rate, currently 5.3 per cent in that cohort.

Although women tended to be more hesitant than men in the past, there are no gender differences in the latest readings.

The survey comes after vaccine rollout taskforce chief Lieutenant General John Frewen said overseas experience showed it would be “hard work” to move from a double-dose rate of 70 per cent to 80 per cent.

‘‘On current projections, it is possible to get to 80 per cent this year, but the variable here is people and people’s preparedness to get vaccinated,’’ he told ABC radio on Wednesday.

According to the battle plan for Operation Covid Shield, incentives could play a part to improve vaccine uptake. General Frewen said hesitancy was also hard to shift in Indigenous communities.

“We’ve got to get the right local leadership … pushing the vaccination message and we’ve got to get people to understand this is urgent and they’ve got to protect not just themselves but their communities,” he said.

On Tuesday, the Morrison government said it would allocate $7.7m to boost take-up rates and address hesitancy in vulnerable communities.

As of Wednesday, almost 23.8 million vaccine doses had been administered, with 69.8 per cent of the eligible population receiving a first dose and 44.7 per cent fully vaccinated.

Doses administered in the past 24 hours was again above 300,000.