January 6, 2021 . The percentage of hesitant citizens remains unchanged at 69% from December 2020 to January 2021 even as two vaccines against coronavirus have been approved for restricted emergency use. In addition, 61% want the government to get Pfizer and Moderna to conduct Covid-19 trials for commercial use in India.

The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) gave a green signal to Oxford-Astrazeneca’s and Serum Institute of India’s Covishield, along with Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin last week. Covishield has been authorised for emergency use only and final contours are reportedly being worked out as it is yet to fulfil additional conditions.

The big question, however, is how many Indians are ready to take the vaccine?

As per latest survey by online platform LocalCircles, 69 per cent maintain that they are in no rush to take a vaccine against coronavirus. The question ‘The first Covid-19 vaccine in India now stands approved. What will be your approach in taking this vaccine’ received 8,723 responses and only 26 per cent of citizens said they will get the vaccine shot as soon as it becomes available

Since October 2020, LocalCircles has been collecting responses from citizens to know their approach on taking the Covid-19 vaccine, aimed to understand if the percentage of reluctance or hesitancy has increased, reduced or remains unchanged. Follow for Coronavirus vaccine Live Updates

As per a survey conducted in October, the percentage of Indians hesitant to take the Covid-19 vaccine stood at 61 per cent. With vaccine makers Pfizer and Moderna announcing success on efficacy results, the aggregate percentage of citizens in India hesitant about the vaccine reduced to 59 per cent in the November survey.

The vaccine developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca via Serum Institute came as hope for India. A survey by LocalCircles, however, showed a dramatic increase in the percentage of citizens to 69 per cent who were hesitant to take a vaccine against coronavirus.

Another independent survey conducted in December by LocalCircles member Dr Abdul Ghafur indicated that the majority of healthcare professionals (55 per cent) were also hesitant about getting Covid-19 vaccine immediately. This majority of professionals in the survey maintained that they are worried about side-effects, or not sure about its efficacy. Approximately 60 per cent of these professionals were engaged with a Covid facility.

Why are people hesitant to take Covid vaccine?
Citizens belief that enough information is not available when it comes to vaccine side-effects, efficacy from trials, which combined with declining caseloads in India are top reasons why people are hesitant to take the Covid-19 vaccine.

Few experts warn of lack of transparency regarding the approval process, too, with DCGI not taking any questions from media when announcing the approval of Covishield and Covaxin on January 3, 2020, is of concern.

Earlier, when the Serum Institute was conducting trials for Covishield, a participant who undertook the trial had alleged that the vaccine was causing him serious side-effects, both neurological and psychological.

The Serum Institute dismissed these claims as “oblique pecuniary motive” maintaining that the participant’s suffering was independent of the vaccine trial he underwent and threatened to seek damages for malicious allegations in excess of Rs 100 crores (20 times the damages claimed by the participant).

All such issues have led to a level of distrust amongst citizens.