British people have the most faith in Covid-19 vaccines

A new study has suggested that British people are the most trusting of Covid-19 vaccines in the world.

Researchers from Imperial College London, in collaboration with YouGov, conducted a survey involving more than 68,000 people from 15 countries and have been tracking people's attitudes to the Covid-19 vaccinations since November.

Their findings showed that faith in the vaccines is highest in the U.K., with 87 per cent expressing trust in the injections, followed by Israel with 83 per cent. Japan reported the lowest levels of trust with only 47 per cent.

The U.K. and Israel are among the nations which have been given the highest number of vaccine doses to date, with more than half of all adults in the U.K. having received both doses of the jab.

In comparison, Japan's vaccine rollout began later and has suffered a number of problems such as supply shortages.

The team also found that 70 per cent of participants in the U.K. had confidence that healthcare providers would give them an effective vaccine - the highest confidence level - while the figure was only 42 per cent in South Korea.

They discovered the most common reason for not having a jab was not yet being eligible for one, while other concerns included safety, possible side effects and a lack of confidence in health authorities.

The survey's results also showed that overall trust in the vaccines has risen, but the authors state that more work needs to be done to boost people's faith in them.

"Our findings show that there is still much work to be done to reassure the public of the safety and effectiveness of coronavirus vaccines," said Sarah Jones, one of the project leaders at Imperial College London, reports BBC News.

"We hope that sharing the concerns people have raised will spur timely and targeted responses from governments that will inform and educate the public about the importance of vaccination."