65% of Māori adults likely to take COVID-19 vaccine

A special Horizon survey  for the television programme The Hui finds 65% of Māori adults are definitely or likely to take a COVID-19 vaccine.

A March 8 panel discussion on The Hui, led by presener Mihingarangi Forbes, developed further insights.

The episode can be streamed here.

Key findings of the February 16-19, 2021, survey are:

• 40% of Māori (an estimated 195,200 Māori adults, said they would definitely take a COVID-19 vaccine if it was offered.  12% (an estimated 58,100 Māori adults), said they would definitely not.
• Overall, 65% of respondents (an estimated 317,300 Māori adults), said they would definitely or were likely to take a COVID-19 vaccine, while 23% (an estimated 110,400 Māori adults), said they were unlikely to do so or definitely would not.  A further 12% (an estimated 56,700 Māori adults) were unsure.

Main reasons for taking:

• Of the top 4 reasons for taking a vaccine, 3 were community/NZ focused (“To help prevent COVID-19 spreading through my community”, “To help protect other New Zealanders” and “It is important to protect my whānau”). The fourth was self-focused (“It is important to protect my health”). 

• For those who were willing to take a vaccine, protecting their whānau and their community was felt to be more important overall than keeping people safe in the rohe.

Reasons for not taking:

• 55% of the respondents who answered “Definitely not”, “Most unlikely” or “Unlikely” to the question on taking a COVID-19 vaccine were less than 35 years old and overall, this group had an average age of 38 years. 

• The major reason for not taking a vaccine is a need to be assured about the vaccine’s safety, and whether there would be any side effects or long-term effects from the vaccine.  Taken together, these factors were nominated by 62% of those who were unsure, unlikely, or definitely would not take a COVID-19 vaccine (an estimated 103,700 Māori adults). 

• 18–24-year-olds were disproportionately more likely to need assurance about the vaccine’s safety, and whether there would be any side effects or long-term effects from the vaccine. 

• 41% (an estimated 69,200 Māori adults) said they did not know enough about the vaccines yet.

• Respondents who said they did not take any vaccine or did not trust any vaccine were nearly all in Te Ika a Māui (98% and 95% respectively).  72% of those who said they did not take any vaccine lived from Taupo north excluding Tāmaki Makaurau. 56% of those who said they did not trust any vaccines lived in Tāmaki Makaurau.

Important factors to make a decision:

• For just over half of Māori, evidence that the vaccine they are offered is unlikely to cause a serious adverse reaction is the most important factor that would make them more likely to take a vaccine.

• The less likely respondents were to take a vaccine if offered, the more likely they were to need evidence about its safety.

 Trust in government:

• 24% of respondents “Definitely trust” the Government to make sure a safe vaccine is made available to everyone.  8% “Definitely do not trust” the Government to do that.

• Overall, 67% of Māori had some level of trust in the Government to do this, compared with 18% who had some level of distrust.

• 11% said they neither trusted the Government nor distrusted them, while 4% were not sure.

• There was a relationship between the level of trust in the Government and willingness to take a vaccine:  the less trust, the less likelihood to take a vaccine.  Conversely, the lower the likelihood to take a vaccine, the less trust there as in the Government.

Sample

Members of the HorizonPoll national and Māori panels plus a third-party respondent panel, who identify as Māori  and are all aged 18+, responded to this online survey between 16 and 19 February 2021.   

The total sample of 547 respondents is weighted on age, gender, employment status, highest educational qualification, personal income and region to match the adult Māori population and at the most recent census. At a 95% confidence level , the survey has a maximum margin of error of ±4.2% overall.

Contact

For more information about this survey, please contact:

Grant McInman, telephone 021 076 2040, email gmcinman@horizonresearch.co.nz.

Graeme Colman, telephone 021 84 85 76, email gcolman@horizonresearch.co.nz.

Data ownership

The survey’s results and data are the property of Horizon Research Limited.