Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – As many as 40 percent of the elderly population in Indonesia have declared that they did not want to get vaccinated against the COVID-19, Director for Science and Research Communication from the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, Douglas Storey, said.

"Among the elderly group above 55 years, 40 percent are reported do not want to be vaccinated," said Storey in a webinar on the Urgency of Accelerating Vaccination for Vulnerable Groups, Anticipating the Third Wave of COVID-19, Wednesday.

The data was collected by the Johns Hopkins Center with a number of parties such as Maryland University and Carnegie Mellon University, after conducting an age-adjusted survey from May to September 2021 on random Facebook users.

Storey pointed out that, as many as 44 percent of the elderly claimed to be afraid of the side effects of the vaccine, while 37 percent were waiting to see if the vaccine was safe to use.

Another reason many older people are afraid of getting vaccinated is that they do not know how vaccines work, they do not like vaccines, and many of them want to put others who are younger and in need of getting vaccinated first.

Seeing the large number of elderly people who are still afraid to vaccinate, Storey advised the Indonesian government to further campaign the COVID-19 vaccine by showing testimonies of people who have received vaccines.

According to him, the Indonesian government has provided more information regarding technical matters such as side effects of vaccines rather than how vaccines work and evidence that vaccines could effectively prevent other diseases.

Reporting by Indonesia Window