Poll indicates majority of Taiwan’s population unwilling to swap masks for vaccine

A majority of people in Taiwan would prefer to continue wearing masks over taking a vaccine for COVID-19 according to poll results on Yahoo News.

Yahoo began conducting the poll after the Minister of Health, Chen Shih-chung said that mask mandates will be lifted after “vaccination rates reach a certain level.” The statement was made as a response to a question during a press conference, April 21, in which a Reuters report was quoted pointing out that Israel [somewhat] relaxed mask-wearing mandates after vaccination rates reached 80% of the population.

“When will we in Taiwan be no longer required to wear masks?” a reporter asked.

At the end of the first day of voting in a poll that started on Yahoo on April 22, of 5,000 respondents, more than 60% said that they would prefer to wear a mask over taking a vaccine.

Shortly after midnight on April 23, only 6.5% of people responded that they would definitely take a vaccine, while 29% said they would probably prefer to take a vaccine if it meant they could take off the mask.

A majority of respondents responded that they would prefer to continue wearing masks rather than taking a vaccine, with 32.1% saying they would definitely not take a vaccine, and 28.6% saying they would probably not take a vaccine, even if it meant they could stop wearing masks.

Only 3.8% of respondents were undecided.

On the question “Does wearing a mask cause a problem in your daily life?” 60.6% responded that it wasn’t a problem, 30.5% said it was somewhat of a problem, and 5.9% responded that it was a major problem. Only 3% were undecided.

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