A new global survey has found that 74% of adults are willing to get vaccinated against the novel coronavirus when a viable vaccine becomes available to the public.

Conducted by the World Economic Forum and market research firm Ipsos, the survey polled nearly 20,000 adults across twenty-seven countries over a two-week span beginning in late July.

The results showed that China was the most enthusiastic country with 97% of respondents saying that they would get vaccinated, while Russia was the least willing with 54%.

Some medical experts, however, were concerned that the data revealed that about a quarter of the world’s population intend on not rolling up their sleeves for a coronavirus vaccine.

“The 26% shortfall in vaccine confidence is significant enough to compromise the effectiveness of rolling out a COVID-19 vaccine,” Arnaud Bernaert, head of shaping the future of health and healthcare at the World Economic Forum, said in a news release.

“It is therefore critical that governments and the private sector come together to build confidence and ensure that manufacturing capacity meets the global supply of a COVID-19 vaccination program. This will require cooperation between researchers and manufacturers and public funding arrangements that remove restrictions to vaccine access.”

The survey also revealed that the most frequently cited reason for not wanting to get vaccinated is concern stemming from potential side effects.

However, in the United Sates, which has the biggest coronavirus outbreak in the world, other polls have suggested that there will likely be much lower participation rates.

A recent Gallup poll revealed that 35% of Americans would refuse a free coronavirus vaccine, even if it is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

In late May, a poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research indicated that 49% of Americans said they would get vaccinated, 20% said they wouldn’t and 31% said they weren’t sure.

According to a Yahoo News/YouGov poll, conducted between July 28 and 30, only 42% of Americans are planning to get vaccinated for the coronavirus. This figure is down from May, when 55% said they would get vaccinated.

Moreover, 34% said they are “very concerned” about the safety of a “fast-tracked” coronavirus vaccine, and another 35% said they are “somewhat concerned.”

In a recent CBS News poll, about half of Americans said they will “wait and see” what happens to others before getting vaccinated themselves.

Currently, there are at least thirty potential vaccines in clinical trials, according to the World Health Organization.

There are more than 25.8 million confirmed cases of coronavirus worldwide, including at least 858,000 deaths, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University.

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Minneapolis-based Science and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn.

Image: Reuters