Over half of Georgians are skeptical about vaccines and this might undermine future efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, according to research released today.
A survey by the Caucasus Research Resource Center (CRRC) into public attitudes towards COVID-19 found that more respondents were negative than positive about vaccines, and women were 25% less likely to want a vaccine than men. Using random digit dialing, CRRC surveyed around 1,000 people per week over six weeks from late April until early June, including minority groups in four different languages.
Many skeptics believed that their immune systems would be able to beat COVID-19, and that the threat of the virus has been exaggerated. Over 40% of respondents believed that the virus had been created in a lab, 44% said they weren’t sure, and 13% believed this proposition to be false.