Poll result: Quarter of people won’t take coronavirus vaccine

Will you take the coronavirus vaccine when it is made available? That was the question at the heart of a major Herts Ad survey carried out over the past week.

We quizzed more than 300 readers in an online poll focusing on the vaccine and attitudes to the pandemic run via our website and promoted on social media.

Shockingly, almost 25 per cent of those quizzed - 74 out of 301 - said they would not take the treatment if it was offered to them.

We asked those who would refuse the vaccine what their main reasons for declining, with people’s available answers including a fear of needles, a breach of their human rights, a general anti-vaccination attitude and the widely-circulated conspiracy theory that Bill Gates would use the vaccine to implant a tracking device into their body.

In fact, almost 53 per cent of those individuals who would refuse the vaccine said this was because they were worried about the possible side-effects.

Additionally, 14 per cent of people who responded said they actually believed the co-founder of Microsoft was using vaccination as a ploy to inject people with a trackable microchip...

There is good news when it comes to adhering to pandemic restrictions, as 93 per cent of those surveyed said they practiced social distancing.

But the government’s handling of the crisis was not considered sufficient, with 69 per cent of people considering not enough was being done by Whitehall in response to the virus.