Employees at SK Bioscience Co.’s factory in Andong, 230 kilometers southeast of Seoul, package AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine on Jan. 20, 2021. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Feb. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — South Koreans in their 50s feel vaccines for the coronavirus are very important, while the sentiment is less prevalent among those in their 30s, according to a recent study.
A research team from Seoul National University’s Graduate School of Public Health conducted a survey of 1,068 men and women, 82.2 percent of whom believed a COVID-19 vaccine was important.
The importance placed on vaccination, however, was significantly different depending on the age group.
Among those in their 50s, 90.8 percent thought vaccination was important, compared to only 71.7 percent for those in their 30s, the least concerned age group.
Rounding out the other age groups, 73.4 percent of those in their 20s, 79.8 percent of those in their 40s, and 89.9 percent of those in their 60s and older thought vaccination was important.
Among the respondents, 20.2 percent had strongly positive views toward coronavirus vaccination.
Another 52.7 percent had positive views but not as enthusiastic. Combining the two groups showed that 72.9 percent had more or less positive views towards vaccination.
Asked for their thoughts about the government’s vaccination schedule, 45.3 percent were willing to follow the official schedule, while 26.8 percent wanted to postpone their turn for vaccination.
When it came to vaccination schedules for family members and friends, however, responses came back differently.
Close to half of the respondents said that family members and acquaintances would follow the government’s vaccination schedule.
One in five said they wanted their family members and friends to postpone vaccinations, while 16.5 percent made strong recommendations to them to get vaccinated.
A look at the correlation between the understanding of the vaccination and its perception showed that people with more positive views towards vaccination tended to be more informed.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
