MOSCOW, November 24, 2009. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data whether Russians are planning to be vaccinated against swine flu, and if "no" - why; as well as how Russians assess the performance of the state sanitary and epidemiologic services to eliminate swine flu threat.
Forty-five percent of Russians are ready to get vaccinated against swine flu: 17% gave definite answer; other 28% would rather do that. Most of those willing to be vaccinated are residents of small cities and rural area (51-53%), youth aged 18-24 (53%), and those who are afraid of swine flu (60%). Nevertheless, 41% of respondents told they are not going to take vaccine: 20% - "rather no", 21% - "definitely no". Most of them are elderly Russians (54%), inhabitants of big cities (58%) and those who are confident that AH1N1 virus is not threatening them (58%).
Those respondents who are not willing to get vaccinated against flu say they are afraid of new vaccine (19%) and uselessness of procedure (18%). Thirteen percent do not think it is necessary because they are confident they will not get sick. Other replies were as follows: contraindication (7%), danger of using vaccines (5%), poor organization of vaccination; other 2% think that vaccination is too late in the midst of the epidemic of flu. Less popular answer was the lack of finance to pay for vaccine (only 1% of respondents).
Two-thirds of Russians (65%) think that government sanitary and epidemiologic services are doing a lot to eliminate AH1N1 virus threat: 31% of them are confident that government bodies are able to tackle the problem, and 34% are skeptical about that. Those who think that nothing is being done are in the minority (16%).
Respondents who think that actions made by the government to prevent the spread of swine flu will give positive results are basically residents of the Urals (60%) and those who are afraid of contracting swine flu (38%). Skepticism is demonstrated by residents of Siberia and those who are afraid to a certain degree of contracting swine flu (39% for each). Southerners and respondents who consider that AH1N1 virus does not threaten them tend to think that nothing is being done by the government to prevent the spread of swine influenza (30 and 21% respectively).
The initiative Russian opinion polls were conducted on November 14-15, 2009. 1600 respondents were interviewed at 140 sampling points in 42 regions of Russia. The margin oferror does not exceed 3.4 %.
Russia has launched vaccination against swine flu this week. Are you or your family members going to get vaccinated? (close-ended question, one answer) | ||||||
| Total respondents | Age, years | ||||
18-24 | 25-34 | 35-44 | 45-59 | 60 and above | ||
Definitely yes | 17 | 21 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 14 |
Rather yes | 28 | 32 | 33 | 31 | 26 | 21 |
Rather no | 20 | 17 | 16 | 20 | 22 | 22 |
Definitely no | 21 | 17 | 18 | 20 | 19 | 32 |
Hard to tell | 14 | 13 | 18 | 12 | 15 | 11 |
Russia has launched vaccination against swine flu this week. Are you or your family members going to get vaccinated? (close-ended question, one answer) | |||||
| Total respondents | Are you or your relatives afraid of contracting flu at the moment? | |||
afraid a lot | afraid to a certain degree | confident that nothing bad will happen to me and my relatives | I did not think about that | ||
Definitely yes | 17 | 29 | 16 | 10 | 7 |
Rather yes | 28 | 31 | 33 | 18 | 15 |
Rather no | 20 | 17 | 20 | 21 | 21 |
Definitely no | 21 | 13 | 16 | 37 | 39 |
Hard to tell | 14 | 9 | 15 | 14 | 17 |
If you or your family members are not going to get vaccinated, can you tell why? (open-ended question, any number of answers, % of those who are not planning to take a flu vaccine) | |
Vaccine is new, effects are unknown | 19 |
Vaccination is useless; it will not have any positive results | 18 |
I am confident that I will not get sick; I do not need to take vaccine | 13 |
I have contraindication | 7 |
Vaccines are dangerous for your health | 5 |
The organization of vaccination is very bad | 3 |
It is too late to get vaccinated in the midst of flu epidemic | 2 |
No money to pay for vaccine | 1 |
Other | 1 |
Hard to tell | 33 |
How effective is the work of government bodies (sanitary and epidemiologic services) combating the spread of swine flu? (close-ended question, one answer) | ||||||||
| total respondents | Federal Districts* | ||||||
CFD | NWFD | SFD | PFD | UFD | SFD | DFD | ||
The government bodies do their best to tackle the problem, they will manage to do that | 31 | 29 | 24 | 19 | 34 | 60 | 30 | 42 |
The government bodies do a lot but I doubt that they will manage to tackle the problem | 34 | 35 | 35 | 36 | 33 | 22 | 39 | 26 |
The government bodies do almost nothing | 16 | 18 | 14 | 30 | 9 | 6 | 13 | 14 |
Hard to tell | 18 | 17 | 27 | 15 | 24 | 12 | 17 | 18 |
*Abbreviations
CFD - Central Federal District
NWFD - North-Western Federal District
SFD - Southern Federal District
PFD - Volga Federal District
UFD - Urals Federal District
SFD - Siberian Federal District
DFD - Far-Eastern Federal District
How effective is the work of government bodies (sanitary and epidemiologic services) combating the spread of swine flu? (close-ended question, one answer) | |||||
| Total respondents | Are you or your relatives afraid of contracting flu at the moment? | |||
afraid a lot | afraid to a certain degree | confident that nothing bad will happen to me and my relatives | I did not think about that | ||
The government bodies do their best to tackle the problem, they will manage to do that | 31 | 38 | 32 | 30 | 19 |
The government bodies do a lot but I doubt that they will manage to tackle the problem | 34 | 33 | 39 | 29 | 28 |
The government bodies do almost nothing | 16 | 15 | 14 | 21 | 16 |
Hard to tell | 18 | 13 | 15 | 20 | 36 |
Note: Using materials from the site www.wciom.ru or www.wciom.com, as well as distributed by VCIOM, the reference to the source (or hyperlink for the electronic media) is obligatory!