Almost two-thirds of Australians think the coronavirus vaccine rollout is not being handled well, according to a new study.

Only 3.6 per cent of people surveyed by the Australian National University thought the vaccine rollout was going “very well”.

The ANU’s Centre for Social Research and Methods surveyed more than 3000 adults about their opinion on the vaccine progress.

On top of the 3.6 per cent that thought good progress has been made, 32.7 per cent believed the rollout was going “somewhat well”, while 42.5 per cent said it is going “not too well” and 21.2 per cent “not going at all well”.

In the second group, 32.4 per cent of Australians thought the process was “very fair”, and 53.3 per cent “somewhat fair”. A further 11.1 per cent said it was “not too fair ” and 3.2 per cent “not at all fair”.

“These findings are extremely important as the government attempts to reconcile public sentiment and confidence in its vaccine program at a time when there are questions about how fast it is being delivered across our community,” study co-author Professor Nicholas Biddle said.

Non-coalition voters less likely to approve

There were also patterns when political views were taken into account.

“Those who had said they would vote for a party grouping other than the coalition were less likely to think the process was going well,” Professor Biddle said.

“While still under half of the population, 45.3 per cent of those who said they would vote for the coalition said the vaccine process was going well.

“This declines to 29.9 per cent among Australians who said they would have voted Labor, 27 per cent of those who said they would have voted for the Greens, 33.3 per cent of those who would have voted for an ‘other’ party, and 25 per cent of those who did not know who they would vote for.”

Increase in people willing to get the vaccine

Between January and April there was an increase in the number of Australians who say they would get a “safe and effective vaccine” – rising from 43.7 per cent to 54.7 per cent over the period.

However, it was still down on last August’s figure of 58.5 per cent, as concerns were raised about side-effects from the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The study also estimated as of April 9.3 per cent of Australia’s adult population had been vaccinated.

-AAP