A wide swath of Americans say they won’t get vaccinated for COVID-19, if one becomes available, according to new Yahoo News/YouGov survey data.
According to the survey of nearly 1,500 US adults, a quarter (25%) said they will not get vaccine, while less than half (46%) said they will. Roughly another quarter (28%) said they are not sure.
The percentage of those who said they would get vaccinated for COVID-19 is in line with the 2018-19 flu vaccination coverage of 45 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
More than 100 vaccines are in development around the world, according to the World Health Organization, with recent high-profile results from Moderna and Pfizer.
YouGov data further reveals half (50%) of those over the age of 65 — widely thought to be the most vulnerable part of the population — said they’ll get vaccinated, while roughly one in five (18%) said they won’t and a third (33%) said they’re not sure.
Democrats (61%) are more likely than Republicans (45%) and Independents (35%) to say they’ll get vaccinated; roughly a third (34%) of those intend to vote for President Donald Trump in November say they’ll get a vaccine compared to 67 percent of those who intend to vote for presumptive Democratic candidate Joe Biden.
There is also a stark difference along the rural-urban divide. More than half (54%) of those living in the country’s suburban areas say they’ll get vaccinated, compared to 46 percent of city-dwellers, 45 percent of those living in towns and 35 percent of rural Americans.
The pandemic has reportedly disproportionally hit Black Americans, who are less likely (37%) to say they’ll get vaccinated compared to white Americans (50%) and the US population in general.
Americans in high-income households ($100,000 or more) are more likely to say they’ll get vaccinated, compared to those with an income of between $50,000 and $100,000 (53%) and under $50,000 (41%).
Methodology: The Yahoo! News survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,504 US adult residents interviewed online between July 11-14, 2020. This sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, and education based on the American Community Survey, conducted by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, as well as 2016 Presidential vote, registration status, geographic region, and news interest. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of all US residents. The margin of error for the entire sample is approximately 3.2%.
