With one in three people indicating that they are unwilling to get vaccinated against Covid-19, it has emerged that mistrust in government and a fear of side effects are among the main barriers to people getting the jab, according to research done by Ask Afrika.

The research project, commissioned by the government and conducted in the weeks before and after the start of the third wave of coronavirus infections (May and June), found that 28% of respondents were unwilling to get vaccinated and half of these did not know much about the government's roll-out plans.

Minister of Health Joe Phaahla has repeatedly said in the past few weeks that the goal was to have 70% of the country's adult population vaccinated by December.

Andrea Rademeyer from Ask Afrika said the vaccine roll-out to the adult population was taking place at a time when communities were under extreme emotional stress. Their research, for instance, showed that the emotional distress among communities in the country was highest in KwaZulu-Natal, with fear levels being very high among young people in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. The research was conducted before the July unrest in parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.

Overall distress was measured...