People Alarmed by the New UK Coronavirus Strain

After a year, the coronavirus evolved and became stronger. The UK health authorities announced a new COVID-19 variant that is more robust and infectious than before. The news mustered a lot of fear and uncertainties — alarming people worldwide. Due to the upgraded strain, some countries even declared a nation-wide lockdown as precautionary measures.

Highlights

• About 81% are aware of the new coronavirus strain traced from the United Kingdom.
• The survey records 73% optimism that the COVID-19 coronavirus will be eliminated despite mutations in the future.
• Almost 50% would consider taking the COVID-19 vaccine if proven to work on the new coronavirus UK strain.

A Real Research survey was launched to measure the global awareness of the new UK strain. According to BBC News, the new COVID variant was first detected in September. Then, around a quarter of cases reported in London were due to the new variant by November. This number rose nearly two-thirds in mid-December.

As the news slowly spread out from the United Kingdom to the world, Real Research came to know that more than half of the sampling population (81%) knows about the new variant. Notably, there are more single people (54%) than married ones (44%) aware of it.

Coronavirus Mutation Optimism

Based on the initial expert findings, the new COVID-19 variant can rapidly replace other weaker versions of the virus. The mutation has already been proven to have enhanced capabilities to infect cells in laboratory testings. This raised stricter COVID-19 precautionary measure implementation once again.

Despite all the leveled-up combat to curb the virus, people are still positive about eliminating the COVID coronavirus family. In a question that asks about the probability of extinguishing the virus — based on the fact that the mutation has the ability of the virus to adapt can be ruled out in the future— people expressed optimism.

As observed in the poll results above, most said that they believe that medical experts would be able to find solutions and therefore there is a chance (73%). On the contrary, around a quarter expressed that they don’t think we stand a chance to rule out the virus completely in the future (27%).

The New UK Strain on Vaccine Development

On other related news, several vaccines have started to roll out in many countries around the world. The initial batch of COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are slowly being distributed across continents ready for the public to take. Also, vaccines from China and India have also been tendered to government health departments and even exported to many developing countries.

When asked whether the new coronavirus strain in the UK affects the developments of the COVID-19 vaccines, many agree that it presents a ‘major impact’ (39%). Some perceive that it would only impose an overall ‘moderate impact’ (33%). A significant number were unsure and answered ‘neutral’ (19%) for this poll.

Many are still hesitant to take the vaccine. This is quite true for many and the new strain is making it harder to make a decision whether it’s time to take the vaccine shot.

In a straightforward question asking people’s opinion if they would take the vaccine once proven to work against the new COVID-19 variant — the majority most-likely will consider (48%). Some are undecided to take the vaccine (34%) while 19% implies negative as they would not consider.

So, who would probably take the vaccine? Those people who are in their prime age. Thus, based on the generated demographics reports, the majority of survey respondents belong to the age group: 19 to 29 and 29 to 30. Moreover, more men (82%) than women (18%) are likely to be aware of the new strain and willing to take the COVID-19 vaccine shot.