Beijinger Survey: 20 Percent of Foreigners Have Begun Vaccination

Following the Spockian observation that “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few,” the city of Beijing was sure to get locals sufficiently vaccinated before moving on to foreigners. But, with more than nine million Beijingers now jabbed, the laowai is finally getting their turn.

So far, most foreigners who’ve gotten the opportunity have been signed up either through their employer or their residential authorities. We have also received word that foreigners can simply bring their passport to the Wangjing Sports Park (望京体育园) between the hours of 9am-6pm to begin the inoculation process, no appointment necessary. The Beijinger has not yet been able to independently verify that the facility provides walk-in vaccinations for foreigners, however, if you'd like to give it a shot (no pun intended) the Wangjing Sports Parks is located about 100 meters north of the Wangjing subway station from exit A.

Unfortunately, there is less transparency as to how the vaccination of foreigners is progressing – so we decided to find out for ourselves! By issuing surveys in the Beijinger’s Safe & Sane WeChat groups, which help to keep some 5,000 Beijing residents informed about the pandemic situation, we were able to estimate how many foreigners started the vaccination process.

The result: out of 517 foreign respondents, around 19.5 percent have already received the first shot, just one week after the rollout for foreign residents was announced.

With that sample size, we estimate a margin of error of 4 percent, so we can feel confident that out of about 100,000 foreigners in Beijing, between 15,500 and 23,500 have started the process. If that rate keeps up, then we’ll expect to see all foreigners given the opportunity to be vaccinated within about four weeks.

However, as one might suspect, it seems that enthusiasm for the vaccine is not quite as prevalent as it is among the local population. Our survey data also indicates that a significant portion of foreigners are wary about getting the Chinese vaccine, while a few are even planning to opt out of vaccination entirely.

Admittedly, this is something of a convenience sample for the purpose of an opinion survey, but one would suspect that people who join a group to stay informed about COVID-19 would, if anything, be biased toward getting vaccinated as soon as possible, so it’s still a bit surprising to see a sizable portion of respondents expressing hesitancy.

One way or another, however, it seems that we will be seeing the majority of foreigners in Beijing inoculated sooner rather than later, and that’s worth a toast – just be sure to wait a week after your second shot to have a celebratory drink!

Have you received your shot? Do you plan on receiving a shot? Let us know in the comments!

Data collection by Michael Wester

READ: Vaccine Passport: What Is It and Can I Have One Please? (Hint: No)

Images: UNSPLASH, The Beijingers