That’s up from 63% in September – indicating a steady rise in confidence as regulators worked to approve the vaccine and held public meetings to discuss data supporting its use.
But black Americans, rural people, and Republicans are more reluctant to take the photos.
One third of those surveyed said they want to get a vaccine “as soon as possible” and 39% of those surveyed said they would “wait and see” how the first vaccination goes before getting a vaccine themselves.
The nonprofit health research group polled 1,676 adults for the survey, which the group is launching as the Covid-19 Vaccine Monitor and plans to update it regularly.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared the use of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine last week after a public meeting of its independent advisers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention backed the EUA after a public meeting of its own advisers over the weekend.
Vaccines were rolled out in all 50 states on Monday, and many doctors, nurses, and other staff stepped in to be publicly vaccinated.
But officials say they are concerned that many Americans still mistrust such a new vaccine.
The research pointed to a small hard core of vaccine skeptics.
About 15% said they would “definitely not” receive a Covid-19 vaccine. “This group is disproportionately made up of Republicans and those with no more than a high school education,” Kaiser said in a statement.
Only 9% of those surveyed, mostly key workers, reported that they would only receive a vaccine if it was required at work, school or some other part of their lives.
“What’s interesting is that when you examine the reasons for hesitation between different groups, you see that they really differ depending on who you talk to,” Liz Hamil, director of Kaiser’s public opinion research program, told CNN.
The study also looked at the rationale behind the hesitation about vaccines, and found that the groups most reluctant to vaccinate are Republicans, 30-39-year-olds, rural Americans, and black Americans.
Concerns about side effects
“Some black adults are hesitant for reasons that could change with more information. For example, 71% of those who say they will not be vaccinated say one major reason is their concern about possible side effects (which are expected to be mild). ).) and half (50%) say they are concerned that they could get COVID-19 from the vaccine, “said KFF.
That’s “sort of a warning sign of possible misinformation being spread among that group,” said Hamil.
Both African-Americans and Latinos expressed concerns about how their needs were taken into account when developing vaccines. Only 11% of African Americans and 16% of Latinos were “confident” that the process was taking their needs into account.
For Republicans, 57% of those surveyed chose “the risks of Covid-19 being exaggerated” as a major reason why they would definitely or likely not receive a vaccine.
“Many Americans who hesitate simply reserve judgment before they are ready to be vaccinated. However, nearly one in four Republicans do not want to be vaccinated because they do not believe COVID poses a serious threat,” said Mollyann Brodie, director vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation. “It will be a real challenge to undo COVID denial in this part of President Trump’s political base.”
Respondents were asked to rate their enthusiasm about the vaccine – if they got the vaccine as soon as possible, wait and see how it works, only if it was needed for school or work, or certainly wouldn’t get it.
The Kaiser team found that 39% of the participants fell into the wait-and-see group. About half, 52%, of black Americans fell into this group; 43% of Latinos did and 36% of Caucasians. Whites made up 40% of the “ASAP group,” but only 20% of blacks and 26% of Hispanics said they wanted a coronavirus vaccine right away.
Trusted messengers
“Based on our data, what happens on this initial rollout will be critical, both for how smoothly it rolls out, but also for how those reports are filtered to the media, and what people’s different media sources tell them about how that. the first rollout is going, ”said Hamil.
“It’s a lot harder because it’s not like a single national ad campaign with a national trusted messenger who can give the people this confidence. It’s really going to be an army of messengers on the ground,” she said.
Kaiser asked the participants who they trust most to get their information. An overwhelming number, 85% said they trusted their personal caregivers above all others, including national, state and local messengers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, local health departments, the Food and Drug Administration, and Dr. Anthony Fauci were all considered more reliable sources of information than President Trump, who was chosen by 34% as the least trusted messenger.
“We’ve seen, over the past few months, you know, trust crumble and become more biased as these different groups and potential messengers got involved in political discourse,” said Hamil.
The study also found that a large majority of Americans believe the vaccine will be widely available next summer, that more people are confident that the vaccine will be properly tested before it is administered.
Those surveyed now also believe that the vaccine will be distributed fairly as it becomes more available. This increase was most pronounced among African Americans – only 32% had confidence in equitable distribution of the vaccine as late as September, but the proportion now stands at 62%.