Half of Swiss would get vaccinated against Covid-19

Not everyone is keen on official anti-Covid measures. These anti-maskers were protesting in front of the UN in Geneva in September. The sign says the WHO are satanists. Keystone

If there were an efficient vaccination against coronavirus, every second person in Switzerland would take it, says a survey. Men would be more likely to do so than women.

Some 54% of respondents said they would get vaccinated, 41% said they would not, and 5% did not commit themselves, according to a representative survey published on Sunday by the SonntagsZeitung and Le Matin Dimanche. It was carried out online at the end of September among around 15,300 people nationwide.

While 61% of the men questioned were in favour of vaccination, only 48% of the women were.

Of those over 65, who are more vulnerable, 70% would agree to be vaccinated, while only 45% of those aged 18-35 would agree to it.

Those on the political left were most likely to be willing to be vaccinated, with two-thirds of Social Democrat voters saying they would get the jab. However, the proportion of those who would be vaccinated was still 41% among supporters of the right-wing Swiss People’s Party.

Around two-thirds of the respondents came from German-speaking Switzerland, almost a quarter from French-speaking Switzerland, and the rest from Italian-speaking Ticino. The survey was conducted between September 24-27.

Comparing this survey result to numbers published by the World Economic Forum External linklast month shows that worldwide, Switzerland is among the countries with the lowest rates of Covid-19 vaccine acceptance. (The survey methodologies were slightly different).
 

Vaccine initiative

On September 18 Switzerland confirmed its participation in the World Health Organization’s COVAX initiative aimed at ensuring equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines when they are approved. It will thereby secure vaccines for 20% of the population.

The aim is to procure two billion doses of vaccines from a range of manufacturers by the end of 2021.

Switzerland will contribute CHF20 million ($22 million), the government said. In addition, so-called self-financing countries – that is, higher-income countries such as Switzerland – may contribute additional funds to secure Covid-19 vaccines for their own populations.

Switzerland has also signed a contract with the US firm Moderna Therapeutics for the purchase of 4.5 million doses of vaccine and is talking to other vaccine manufacturers.