The government should expedite the acquisition of quality vaccines and allow the private sector to participate in order to be able to defeat Covid-19, according to the result of an opinion survey by Suan Dusit Rajabhat University, or Suan Dusit Poll.
The poll was conducted online on June 28-July 1 on 1,744 people throughout the country to compile people's opinions on how the government should respond to the rising numbers of Covid-19 infections and deaths.
The respondents were allowed to tick more than one of the multiple-choice answers.
Asked how Covid-19 had affected Thailand, 91.95% said the virus had damaged the economy, caused unemployment and hardship; 85.86% said new variants of Covid-19 were causing more infections and deaths; 81.78% said it placed them under stress; 78.28% said they had to become more self-reliant in terms of health safety; and 74.31% said the situation had become serious and might spiral out of control.
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Asked whether they thought the government had been on the right track in coping with Covid-19, a majority -- 66.05% -- said "no",13.59% said "yes" and 20.36% were uncertain.
Asked what the government should do to defeat Covid-19, 87.25% said it should expedite the acquisition of quality vaccines and allow the private sector to participate; 80.16% said it should look for support in terms of medical personnel and equipment; 79.53% said it must stop the virus spreading and get control of risk factors; 78.09% said it must tell the people the truth and explain the real situation; and 75.20% said it should stop playing politics and show sincerity in tackling the problem.
Asked who or which agencies they wanted to handle the Covid-19 situation, 67.04% picked the Department of Disease Control; 65.16% the Ministry of Public Health; 49.88% the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA); 41.13% the entire Thai population; and 32.31% the prime minister.