Nearly 39% of the participants in the Public Opinion Barometer (POB) said they would definitely refuse to be vaccinated against COVID-19. 19.4% of the respondents said they would rather not get a vaccine, 11.5% said they are sure they would go to be vaccinated, while 18.4% said they would rather not get a vaccine. 11.9% said they don’t known if they would allow to be vaccinated or didn’t answer. The survey data were presented by the Institute for Public Policy on February 22.

“As we ascertained on other occasions, at different stages of the pandemic in the course of last year, the insufficient information and the loss of the battle against fake news are probably the main challenge in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Moldova,” sociologist Vasile Cantarji, of CBS Research, stated in a news conference at IPN.

Vasile Catnarji said that besides the pandemic, the disinformation and fake news are also problems that need to be combated. “Today, only 25.9% of the respondents of the Public Opinion Barometer consider the shots will help them fight the pandemic. So, almost 35% said the vaccines will not help at all even if everyone daily speaks about vaccines and there are many official news items and reports from the responsible authorities, including international ones. Even if four vaccines that were invented in parallel were authorized in most of the states, 35% of the citizens of the Republic of Moldova consider the vaccination will not help them,” stated the sociologist.

Of those polled, 7.5% said they were confirmed with COVID-19 by a test, while almost 11% responded that members of their families contracted the infection. Asked about the form of the disease they suffered, each fourth respondent said they practically didn’t have symptoms, 53% said it was a mild form, while almost 20% said it was a severe form.

Over 81% of those surveyed said they and members of their families weren’t confirmed with COVID-19.

The survey covered a national sample of 1,108 persons aged 18 and over. The data were collected during January 28 and February 14 through face-to-face interviews. The margin of sampling error is +/-3%.