SIX of 10 Filipinos or 63 percent prefer COVID-19 vaccines from United States-based pharmaceutical companies, the first quarter survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) conducted from April 28 to May 2 showed.
The survey also showed 19 percent preferred vaccines from China; 13 percent from Japan, Australia, and the United Kingdom; 12 percent from Canada and Russia; 8 percent from Germany; 6 percent from Korea; and 3 percent from India. Two percent said they preferred all vaccines from all countries while 2 percent said they do not know or have no preference.
The survey, which involved 1,200 adult respondents nationwide and had a margin of error of ±3 percent, was conducted when at least 7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been delivered to the Philippines, including some 5 million doses from China’s Sinovac Biotech, around 2.5 million doses from UK’s Oxford-AstraZeneca, and some 30,000 doses from Russia’s Gamaleya. The first batch of 193,000 doses of vaccines from from Pfizer-BioNTech arrived a week after the survey was conducted.
Vaccines from the US are the most preferred in all areas, with the highest from the Visayas (66 percent), Luzon (65 percent), Metro Manila (63 percent), and Mindanao with 54 percent
Preference of vaccines from the US rises with education. It is highest among college graduates (67 percent), junior high school graduates (66 percent), elementary graduates (58 percent), and non-elementary graduates (55 percent).
SWS also found that the preferred brand of vaccine, among those that are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), are those from China’s Sinovac Biotech, with 39 percent, followed by those from US’ Pfizer BioNTech with 33 percent, United Kingdom’s Oxford AstraZeneca with 22 percent, the US’ Johnson & Johnson with 10 percent, and the US’ Moderna with 7 percent.
Filipinos also preferred CureVac (3 percent), Sinopharm (3 percent), Novavax (3 percent), Sanofi-GSK (3 percent) and Gamaleya (2 percent) while 2 percent preferred all available vaccines. Nineteen percent did not have a brand preference.
Vaccines from Sinovac are the most picked in Mindanao (44 percent), the Visayas (44 percent) and Luzon (36 percent) while vaccines from both Sinovac and Pfizer are preferred by those from Metro Manila (37 percent each).
By education, Pfizer is the most preferred among college graduates (46 percent) while Sinovac topped the choice of junior high school graduates (43 percent), elementary graduates (34 percent), and non-elementary graduates (36 percent).
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque and National Task Force against COVID-19 spokesman Restituto Padilla Jr. reiterated government’s call for the public not to be brand conscious as all vaccines given emergency use authority by the FDA are safe and effective.
