More than 14 percent those surveyed in Tajikistan don’t trust COVID-19 vaccine

CI has reportedly conducted the survey in Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and  Uzbekistan as well as in Pakistan, Mongolia and Georgia.  

According to the survey, only about a quarter of adults in the mentioned countries believed that all vaccines that have been tested by the responsible authorities are safe. 

The survey reportedly found that many in Central and West Asia still need to be convinced about COVID-19 vaccines’ safety. Here are five ways to boost trust in the vaccines.

Concern about possible side effects was the main reason cited by some in Central and West Asia who don’t want to get vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a CAREC Institute survey

About 32% of those surveyed said that even if the vaccine were free and certified safe by their governments, they still would not get inoculated, most commonly citing concerns over side effects.

In Tajikistan, about 33 percent of those surveyed consider the tested vaccines safe,  almost 25 percent of those surveyed link vaccine safety to country of origin, and 27 percent of respondents need time to make sure vaccines are safe.

14.3 percent of those surveyed in Tajikistan do not trust all the COVID-19 vaccines.  

About 18 percent of those surveyed in Tajikistan said that they would not like to get vaccinated against COVID-19 even if the vaccine were free and certified safe by their governments,

The survey covered 7,000 people in the mentioned seven countries and was conducted in December 2020 and January 2021, before the rollout of mass vaccination campaigns.

CAREC Institute (CI) is an intergovernmental organization contributing to the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program through knowledge generation and capacity building.   

Meanwhile, another wave of coronavirus infections is reportedly washing through Tajikistan.

A doctor at a hospital in Dushanbe told Eurasianet on May 26 on condition of anonymity that two patients with suspected COVID-19 diagnoses have been admitted daily over the past week.

A similar story has come out of the northern Sughd province. Abumavlon Abdullozoda, the head physician at Sughd regional hospital, said on May 19 that they had returned two positive PCR-based tests applied to a Yemeni national. The man, his family and the staff of the hotel where he had been living were placed in quarantine, according to Eurasianet.

The Health Ministry, however, did not include this positive result in its data on the COVID-19 situation.  Officials said the patient’s test was forwarded to Dushanbe and that it returned a negative result.

Since the beginning of the year, the authorities in Tajikistan have reported almost no COVID-19 cases.