A strong majority of the public said they will get the coronavirus vaccine when it becomes available — however, a political divide remains between those who will get the vaccine and who will not.
A recent poll from ABC/Ipsos found that more than 90% of respondents agree the vaccine should be given to healthcare workers first. More than 80% said that first responders, the elderly, and people with preexisting conditions should be allowed to get the vaccine before it’s available to the general public.
When it comes to the vaccine’s availability to the general public, more respondents said they wanted to wait before getting it themselves. Two in 5 respondents said that they would get the vaccine as soon as they were able to, and 44% said they will wait. Elderly respondents were more likely to say they would get the vaccine immediately, at 57%.
The poll was conducted Dec. 12-13 among 621 people and has a plus or minus 4.3 point-margin of error.
The Food and Drug Administration granted an emergency use authorization for Pfizer and BioNTech’s two-stage coronavirus vaccine on Friday. During a Saturday press conference, Gen. Gustave Perna, the chief operating officer for the Department of Defense’s Operation Warp Speed, said 145 sites across the country will receive the newly authorized vaccine on Monday.
Many public health officials were concerned that skepticism regarding vaccines and fears of a politicized vaccine development process would lead to large shares of the population opting not to get the vaccine. Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, asked people in the United States to “hit the reset button” on skepticism surrounding the vaccine’s “astounding” development timeline.
Only 15% of respondents said that they would never get the vaccine. Republicans were more likely to say that they would not get the vaccine, at more than one-quarter. Six percent of Democrats said they were more likely to not get the vaccine.
The poll also found that roughly one-third of respondents think states should make the coronavirus vaccine mandatory.
The U.S. has reported more than 16 million cases of the COVID-19 since the pandemic began, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The U.S., like many countries across the globe, is in the middle of the worst surge in cases yet, with fears that holiday travel from Thanksgiving and upcoming winter festivities will only compound an already worsening situation. The U.S. reported more than 219,000 cases on Saturday alone, and to date, nearly 300,000 people have died.
