COVID coverage with Professor Chris Bullen
NIHI Academic Director, and Deputy Head of The School of Population Health at the University of Auckland, Professor Chris Bullen, discussed the results of a Horizon Survey commissioned in late December 2020 by the Ministry of Health involving almost 1500 adult New Zealanders, to understand vaccine hesitancy.
The report was discussed at a Ministry of Health briefing on Wednesday 17th February 2021, in which Prof Bullen took part with Ministry of Health representatives.
Professor Bullen said that respondents were most concerned about the safety of the vaccine, and while the 60 to 70 per cent of people willing to have the vaccine was “a great starting point”, communication around the vaccine needed to address the concerns of the remainder. He said that the findings showed about one in ten people would not accept a vaccine and could be very hard to persuade. He thought another 10 to 15 per cent were hesitant but persuadable.