Half of those in Belgium hesitant about vaccinations against Covid-19 are doubtful of one specific vaccine, not vaccines as a whole, new data has shown.
This information comes from the thirtieth edition of the Great Corona Survey conducted by the University of Antwerp, which saw over 20,000 people participate in the fortnightly survey conducted by the University of Antwerp in collaboration with UHasselt, KU Leuven and ULB.
While a high number of people (84%) indicate that they are ready to be vaccinated, half of those who were still hesitant doubted the safety of the specific vaccine they would receive.
Currently, only three vaccines have been approved for use in Belgium: Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca.
The Pfizer vaccine was the first one to gain EU approval at the end of December, followed by the Moderna one in early January. AstraZeneca's vaccine was approved two weeks ago.
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Despite the European Medicines Agency's (EMA) recommendation that it could be used for all adult age groups, a number of countries - including Belgium - have decided not to administer it to people over 55 years old for the time being.
Additionally, the Great Corona Study's results also show that, for 79% of those surveyed, not getting sick is the main reason to be vaccinated, with older people giving this reason much more often than younger people.
Other findings show that 58% of the respondents have let their hair grow in the last two months, with women (73%) more than men (40%). Around 42% of respondents took care of their hair themselves or left it to a cohabitant to do so, while 2% admitted having nevertheless used a professional hairdresser.
This was to be expected, as hairdressers had to close their salons at the beginning of November and will only be able to reopen from this Saturday 13 February.
For the coming weeks, 40% of the participants have already made an appointment with a hairdresser or are trying to get one as soon as possible. This last observation concerns mainly people over 35 years of age and women.
Jules Johnston & Maïthé Chini
The Brussels Times
