KUALA LUMPUR: 48 per cent of Malaysians surveyed think a vaccine for Covid-19 would be made available to them by the end of the year.
This makes Malaysians more optimistic than the global average, found an Ipsos survey for the World Economic Forum.
"Malaysia and China are two very confident countries that believe the Covid-19 vaccine will be available by the end of the year while other Western countries have little hope of it," said the market research company.
The survey - Attitude on Covid 19 Vaccine, found that China was the most optimistic at 87 per cent, while most Western countries and Japan were less optimistic about the prospects of a vaccine being found for the novel coronavirus by the end of 2020.
Although the discovery of the vaccine seems to build an excitement, nevertheless almost half of the Malaysians surveyed were concerned about the side effects such a vaccine might leave behind, Ipsos said.
It adds that the survey also found that a third of Malaysians refuse to think that the vaccine would be effective, while a good number of them were optimistic that they would not be at risk from Covid-19 and as such they would not find it necessary to get the shot.
"As countries and companies push against time to release a Covid-19 vaccine, public opinion and acceptability also play an important role in its success.
"Malaysians stand with the emerging economies, in their optimism for an early availability of Covid-19 vaccine.
"Universal and affordable public health care system support Malaysians' confidence in the availability of vaccine for the masses," Managing director of IPSOS Malaysia, Arun Menon said.
He stressed that public authorities should be conscious about the general apprehension on side effects and vaccine effectiveness as potential barriers of adoption.