As the reality of a coronavirus vaccine gets closer, it appears more Americans are willing to get it. A recent survey found nearly 60 percent of respondents said they would get a vaccine for the coronavirus.
The poll conducted by Gallupin late October was done before Pfizer and Moderna shared the initial results of their clinical trials showing their separate vaccines were both more than 90 percent effective against the coronavirus.
Roughly 58 percent of the nearly 3,000 respondents said “yes”, they would get a vaccine. During the last four months of polling Gallup has done on this question, the lowest “yes” response rate was 50 percent of respondents in mid-September.
Since then, the FDA, other health experts and the drug makers themselves have sought to clarify the testing process and offer transparency about the approval process.
The latest survey results still mean roughly 42 percent of those asked would not get a coronavirus vaccine.
“Four in 10 remain unwilling to get a vaccine, indicating public health officials face an uphill climb in convincing a good share of the public to do so,” the Gallup report stated.
A large increase in those who said “yes” in this latest survey came from respondents in the 45-to-64 years old group. In mid-September, there was only 36 percent of this group who would get a vaccine, in October, that number had increased to 49 percent.
According to the survey results, it appears those who identify as Democrats remain the most willing to get a vaccine and increased the most in the latest survey, compared with those who identify as Republican remaining below 50 percent “yes” through the entire four months of Gallup’s polling.
In the latest survey from late October, 69 percent of Democrats and 49 percent of Republicans would get the vaccine. In September, only 53 percent of Democrats said “yes.”
As for reasons people gave for not wanting to take a coronavirus vaccine, Republicans were split among various answers; 26 percent were concerned about a rushed timeline, 20 percent don’t trust vaccines generally, 19 percent want to wait to confirm the vaccine is safe, and 22 percent said there were other reasons.
Meanwhile, more than half of the Democrats who would not take a vaccine said it was because of concerns about a rushed timeline and they want to wait to confirm it is safe.
Pfizer and Moderna have said tens of millions of doses of their vaccines could be available by the end of the year once they get the “go ahead” from the FDA.