TOKYO: About half of pregnant women in Japan are reluctant to receive COVID-19 vaccinations due chiefly to concerns over side effects, a survey led by the National Center for Child Health and Development showed Saturday.

“We want pregnant women to decide whether to receive novel coronavirus vaccine shots based on accurate information to prepare for a possible eighth wave of infections” in Japan, an official involved in the survey said.

The Tokyo-based center and others conducted the online survey in the summer of 2021, covering 10,000 women, including pregnant women. Valid responses came from 7,327.

In the survey, 51.1 percent of pregnant women said that they do not want to receive vaccinations, or they plan to decide whether to be vaccinated after seeing further developments.

Those who have not received COVID-19 shots but wish to be inoculated accounted for 35.6 percent of pregnant women.

Among mothers with children of 2 years old or younger, 32.0 percent said they do not want to receive COVID-19 shots, while 41.7 percent said that they want to be vaccinated.

For both pregnant women and mothers with such small children, the most common reason for being reluctant to receive COVID-19 shots was because they are concerned about side effects.

Many pregnant women said they are worried that their babies may be affected in some way and some said they cannot trust the ingredients of the vaccines.

In Japan, pregnant women were initially not asked to make efforts to receive COVID-19 vaccinations under the immunization law, but they have been obliged to do so since February.

“There is a lot of dubious information about vaccines,” Kazue Ishitsuka, a researcher at the center who took part in the survey, said.

“The government and medical workers need to provide correct information about the effects and side reactions of vaccines,” she added.

JIJI Press