78 percent consumers are willing to get vaccinated, if vaccine is available for free: NIVI report

As consumers around the globe adjust to the next normal, there is significant variance in consumer sentiment and behaviours across countries, when it comes to COVID-19 vaccination. NIVI, a consumer-facing digital health company, through its AI-driven chat-bot askNivi, recently launched a polling effort to monitor public opinion about COVID-19 vaccines across 800 respondents in India.

According to the report, 78 percent respondents said they would definitely get vaccinated if the vaccine were available for free today. However, 25 percent were less optimistic about the efficacy of a free vaccine. About two-fifths respondents expressed apprehension over getting vaccinated if the vaccine were to be delivered in multiple doses.

Some key highlights from the report:

1. 78% respondents said they would definitely (61%) or probably (17%) get vaccinated.
2. At least 60% of respondents would be likely to get vaccinated if the vaccine were available for free today.
3. 23% of respondents do not want to get vaccinated as they believe that the vaccine is unnecessary and general distrust in vaccines.
4. There is a co-relation between respondents not concerned with COVID-19 and rarely wear masks in public- they are more likely to not get vaccinated.
5. Less than half of respondents (42%) said their likelihood of getting vaccinated would decrease if the vaccine requires multiple doses.

As Sidd Goyal, CEO and Co-Founder of Nivi, reiterates the benefits a consumer friendly digital platform can deliver on, “Platforms like Nivi can help in dispersing precise information on vaccination and it’s addressing some of the concerns consumers can have. The notion of ‘accelerating just and equitable access to high-quality healthcare for all’, can be achieved through an integrated healthcare system and for that, it is imperative to keep consumers at the centre of all evidence- based healthcare policies. This is at the very heart of what we do at Nivi.”

In the last year, Nivi also created COVID-19-specific conversations to address challenges in accessing family planning and reproductive health care. In India, almost twice as many active users engaged during the first quarter of the COVID-19 pandemic. For this, Nivi was also recognized as a source of data for UN FP2020. In addition to this, a recent global analysis (Figueiredo et al. 2020) also establishes a similar correlation between limited education and less uptake of vaccines. This was also reflective in the survey responses collected by Nivi.

With 1.3 billion people, and an estimated 11 million cases of COVID-19 to date, India faces a seemingly mammoth vaccination challenge. The government’s plan to initially vaccinate around 300 million people seems achievable with the first step being vaccinating 30 million frontline health workers.

To achieve this ambitious target, India will rely heavily on its public-health infrastructure – so far three thousand COVID-19 vaccination centres, 27,000 cold chain have been set up and over 150, 000 trained staff in 700 districts to administer the vaccines.

In addition to this, India is also leveraging technology and data to streamline tracking and accountability. In record time, the authorities have created tracking, procurement and distribution system for vaccine supplies as well as a national vaccine information system to balance both the supply and demand side of the vaccine.

As data plays an increasingly more important role in policy-making, use of NIVI in the health care sector can bring out diverse facets which can benefit the whole health care arrangement. Healthcare analytics which are derived from consumer experience has the potential to strengthen preventive healthcare, reduce costs of treatment, predict outbreaks of epidemics, avoid preventable diseases, and improve the quality of life in general.

Asknivi, through its engage-chat model is enhancing access to trusted, reliable information, guidance, and referrals to men, women and youth to make decisions about their sexual and reproductive health – empowering people at scale to make informed health decisions.