DR.

RAM MANOHAR LOHIYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY,

LUCKNOW

2021

SOCIOLOGY PROJECT

RESEARCH SURVEY

“SKEPTICISIM IN GENERAL PUBLIC REGARDING VACCINATION”

Submitted to: - Submitted by:-

Prof. (Dr.) Sanjay Singh Ashutosh Yadav

Sociology-II 200101045

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RMLNLU Batch of
2025

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I have taken efforts in this project. However, it would not have been possible without the
kind support and help of many individuals and organisation. I would like to extend my
sincere thanks to all of them. I am highly indebted to professor for sociology Prof. Sanjay
Singh for his guidance and supervision as well as for providing necessary information
regarding the project, also for their support in completing the project.

I would like to extend my gratitude towards my senior of my course, who constantly helped
me first the best sources for research. Finally, I acknowledge the authorities as well as the
care-taker of Dr. Madhu Limaye Library, who provided me with the means to make this
project in the form of online sources.

This project is a result of my efforts combined with all the means and environment that has
been provided to me by Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow and its
authorities and I am thankful to them.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.........................................................................................................2

TABLE OF CONTENTS...........................................................................................................3

1. INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................4

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY................................................................................4

1.2 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY.......................................................................................4

2. RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS METHADOLOGY............................................................5

2.1 ONLINE SURVEY..........................................................................................................5

2.2 APPLICABLE STATISTICAL WEIGHT......................................................................5

3. BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE SURVEY..............................................................................6

3.1 VACCINES REFERRED................................................................................................6

3.2 REASONS FOR NON-VACCINATION........................................................................7

4.0 AWARNESS REGARDING THE VACCINATION DRIVE............................................8

5.0 KNOWLEDGE ABOUT OTHER VACCINES AVALIABLE..........................................9

6.0 REASON FOR NOT GETTING VACCINATED............................................................10

7.0 CONLCUSION..................................................................................................................11

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 1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The deadly disease COVID-19 which was started in the year 2019 has caused a fatality at a
across the world. Millions of lives were lost. Many lost their parents, siblings, or other family
members. Many Health worker working on the frontline lost their lives too. And what this
disease deadlier was unviability of the cure. Being a novel disease, no cure was available so
the scientific community around the world engaged in developing a vaccine which would
prevent the further loss of lives and help individual to fight against this disease.

Many Countries around the world engaged in developing a vaccine. Later in the year 2020,
light at end of the tunnel appeared in form of potential vaccines. Pharmaceuticals Companies
around the world likes Astra Zeneca, Pfizer, Bharat Bio-Tech developed vaccine that were
capable of developing the immunity to fight against this disease. Soon the mass production
and distribution these vaccine began, countries like USA, Britain, Brazil started ordering the
vaccine in advance so that they can vaccinate their citizens at the earlies and develop the
immunity against the same. India also did the same it pre booked a huge chunk of these
vaccine so as to vaccinate its population at the earliest.

However, in India when this vaccine arrived the turnout for vaccination was quite low.
People had this skepticism in their mind regarding the vaccine. As many people that these
were prepared skipping some of the clinical tries that makes them unsafe while other thought
that the ingredients used in the vaccine, are made of substances which are not edible in their
community, and some said getting vaccinated was against their religious guidelines.

1.2 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of the research work is to analyses the awareness of the vaccination and the
roots of the various skepticism that people have in their minds regarding the vaccinations.
What are the reasons that hold them back from getting vaccinated and what another psyche
they may have regarding the same?

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 2. RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS METHADOLOGY
This section talks about the method that was used to do the research and the methodology
used in the valuation and derivation of the result: -

2.1 ONLINE SURVEY

The research method used to conduct this research was the online survey. As in this
unprecedented time of Corona physical survey was not an option so the survey was done in
the online mood using the Google Forms. A link for the online form was sent to the
respondent and once the form was filled and submitted the data was collected and the
responded was notified of the successful completion of it.

With the help of the responses collected, they were adjudged to the various categories
depending on the reasons of not getting vaccinated. The researcher also discerned the level of
awareness of the vaccination in the respondent in each question and classified it into a range
of 4 intensities:

No Information (NI)
Average information (AI)
Full Information (FI)
Less Information (LI)

2.2 APPLICABLE STATISTICAL WEIGHT

For analysing the result and finding of the survey, the researcher has applied weights to each
intensity.

INTENSITY NUMERICAL WEIGHT

No Information [0]

Less Information [+1]

Average Information [+2]
Full Information [+3]

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 3. BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE SURVEY
In this section a brief overview of the various options that were provided in the survey is
given. It will introduce to the bases of introducing these options and would help us to
understand the survey more effectively.

3.1 VACCINES REFERRED

As various vaccines are available in the market, some of them which are currently being used
where referred in this survey.

1) COVAXIN: - COVAXIN, India's indigenous COVID-19 vaccine by Bharat Biotech

is developed in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) -
National Institute of Virology (NIV). The indigenous, inactivated vaccine is
developed and manufactured in Bharat Biotech's BSL-3 (Bio-Safety Level 3) high
containment facility. The vaccine is developed using Whole-Virion Inactivated Vero
Cell derived platform technology. Inactivated vaccines do not replicate and are
therefore unlikely to revert and cause pathological effects. They contain dead virus,
incapable of infecting people but still able to instruct the immune system to mount a
defensive reaction against an infection.
2) COVISHIELED: - The Covid-19 vaccine was developed by Oxford University in
partnership with British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca. It is being manufactured in India
by Pune-based Serum Institute of India. Covishield is based on the viral vector
platform. The vaccine is made from a weakened version of a common cold virus
(known as an adenovirus) that causes infections in chimpanzees. It has been modified
to look more like coronavirus, although it can't cause any illness. The injected virus
instructs the body on how to fight against similar viruses.
3) SPUTNIK: - The Russian COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V (Gam-COVID-Vac) is an
adenoviral-based, two-part vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Initially
produced in Russia, Sputnik V uses a weakened virus to deliver small parts of a
pathogen and stimulate an immune response. The Sputnik V (Gam-COVID-Vac)
vaccine reduces the time taken for the actual development of immunity to SARS-
CoV-2, the virus behind the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a vector vaccine based on
adenovirus DNA, in which the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus gene is integrated.

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 3.2 REASONS FOR NON-VACCINATION

Listed below are some of the reasons that were a part of the survey under the question for the
possible reason of them not getting vaccinated.

1. Hastily Development: - One of the reasons that could be possibly for not getting
vaccinated was the “hastily development” of the vaccine. As vaccine was developed after
skipping certain clinical trials, so this might have created a doubt in mind of the general
public regarding getting vaccinated or not.

2. Religious Reasons: - India is a country of diverse religions, and every religion as it own
set of principles which governs them. In some religion, getting vaccinated is not permitted.
The reason for the same can be any but the people who follow that religion, abide by this and
prevent from getting vaccinated.

3. Ingredients of Vaccine: - Ingredients of the vaccine is also, one of the prominent things
that concerns a lot of publics as people tend to believe that the ingredients that are used in the
development of the vaccine is something that they don’t consume or non-vegetarian etc.
Hence it prevents them from getting vaccinated and has being included as a possible reason
in the questionnaire.

4. Already Recovered from COVID: - People who already suffered from the COVID tend
to believe that they don’t require to get vaccinated as they have already developed the
immunity against the same. Under this impression they deny this idea of getting vaccinated.

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 4.0 AWARNESS REGARDING THE VACCINATION DRIVE
The first set of questions were asked regarding the awareness of the vaccination drive that
was being carried out in the country.

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
Aware Partially Aware Not Aware

This question was particularly asked to get an idea that whether the survey taker has the
knowledge about the vaccination drive, as it would help to establish that survey taker being
infirmed about the vaccination has not taken the vaccine. As from the above result it was
concluded that around 95% that took the survey were aware about the vaccination drive that
was being carried out and 5% were partly aware about it and lacked the complete knowledge
about the same.

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5.0 KNOWLEDGE ABOUT OTHER VACCINES AVALIABLE
The set of questionaries were asked regarding whether the survey taker was aware of the
other vaccines that were available.

3%
9%

46%
Covishield
Covaxin
Sputnik V
42%
None of the Above

From the survey it was observed that there were only two vaccines about which the survey
audience was aware at large. The largest percentage was given to the Covishield that
received a total of 46%, at the second with the 42% was the Covaxin. The reason behind
these too could be the popularity of these two as they were the only two vaccines initially
available in the Indian market. After that comes the latest arrived vaccine from Russia,
Sputnik V being launched lately in the market it has only 9% of the survey taker aware about
the same. And the last was the None of the above the people at were not aware about that
made about the 3% of the total survey takers.

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 6.0 REASON FOR NOT GETTING VACCINATED
The next set of questions were asked regarding the reason for the people not vaccinated. As
the people had various reason for not getting vaccinated

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

None of the Above Ingredients of the vaccine Religious Reason Hastily Development

The results that were obtained pointed out the most prominent reason for the people not
getting vaccinated was the hastily development of the vaccine with 42%, as the vaccine was
developed skipping the clinical trails this prevented people from getting vaccinate. The
second most prominent reason was the ingredients of the vaccine, the material that was used
to create vaccine. The uncertainty about the same forced people to not get vaccinated
according to the 32% of the survey taker. Third prominent reason was the religion, 22% of
the population accepted that they were not opting to get vaccinated due to various religious
reasons. And least percentage of the people had the None of the Above as the reason for not
getting vaccinated, it can be any reason expanding from financial to other that prevented
people from getting vaccinated.

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 7.0 CONLCUSION
The information collected from the survey, it can be concluded that the hesitancy of people
getting vaccinated can be linked to the skipping of the clinical trial, ingredients from which it
is made up of and religious reasons. The people at large being aware of the vaccination drive
and its potential benefit seemed skeptical about vaccination. The survey taker also said in
their responses that if these problems associated with vaccines are removed, they might get
vaccinated. The Governments should consider these queries of the people at the earliest, and
to vaccinate their population at the earliest they should work the issues attached with these
vaccines. As the vaccine is only recourse available to fight against this deadly virus and to
save important lives.

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