Phuket divided on taking COVID vaccine: Poll - Phuket News

Phuket divided on taking COVID vaccine: Poll

PHUKET: People living in Phuket or with an otherwise vested interest in the island are divided over whether or not they would take a COVID vaccine at this stage, according to responses to an online poll conducted by The Phuket News.

With Phuket amid a big push to attract domestic tourists to the island and the call by all major Phuket businesses associations, not just tourism industry representatives, for the island to re-open to international visitors from Oct 1, all eyes are turning to COVID vaccinations as Phuket's big hope to restart the island's economy.

As such, while recognising that many factors affect the decision, The Phuket News launched an online poll on Feb 10 asking the simple question: "Would you take a COVID vaccine?"

The poll closed at midnight on Friday night (Feb 19).

Overall, 28% of respondents voted an outright "Yes" to taking a COVID vaccine, and a further 28% voted "It depends on the vaccine".

The remaining 43% voted an outright "No" to taking a COVID vaccine.

Of the 28.47% respondents who voted "Yes", 10.88% were Thai nationals, 67.36% were local expatriate residents and 21.76% were foreign visitors to Phuket.

Among the 43.36% who voted "No" 49.32% were Thai nationals, 39.46% were local expatriate residents and 11.22% foreign visitors to Phuket.

Hanging in the balance were those who voted "It depends on which vaccine" (28.17%), of whom 15.18% were Thai nationals, 74.87% were local expatriate residents and the remaining 9.95% were foreign visitors to Phuket.

By demographic, of the Thai nationals who took part in the poll 10.77% voted "Yes" and 14.87% voted "It depends on which vaccine", but a huge 74.36% voted a plain "No".

Of those who marked themselves as "Local expatriate residents", 33.42% voted "Yes", 29.82% voted "No" and the remaining 36.76% voted "It depends on which vaccine".

Of those who entered the poll as a "foreign visitor to Phuket", 44.68% voted "Yes" to taking a COVID vaccine, 35.11% voted "No" to taking a vaccine and the remaining 20.21% voted "It depends on which vaccine".