the coronavirus crisis
Percentage of Americans who say they'd get a COVID-19 vaccine declines 10 percent in 3 months
Fewer Americans say they'd get a vaccine against COVID-19 than about three months ago, an alarming new poll has found.
In a poll released by CNN on Wednesday, when respondents were asked if they would personally try to get a vaccine to prevent COVID-19 if one was made widely available at a low cost, only 56 percent said they would, while 40 percent said they wouldn't. The percentage of Americans who say they would get vaccinated is down 10 percentage points from May, when 66 percent in the same CNN poll said they'd get the vaccine.
CNN reports the decline "seems to be concentrated among Trump supporters, 51 percent of whom said they would seek out a vaccine in May compared with 38 percent who say the same now." In response to the poll's finding, CNN's Jim Sciutto tweeted, "The attack on science has consequences."
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, previously warned that if too many Americans refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine, it's "unlikely" the U.S. will get to herd immunity.
That's why, he explained to CNN, it's important for "people to understand that we're doing everything we can to show that it's safe and that it's effective, and it's for the good of them as individuals and in society to take the vaccine." Fauci added, however, that keeping in mind the "anti-science, anti-authority, anti-vaccine feeling among some people in this country," health officials, unfortunately, have "a lot of work to do."
The poll was conducted by SSRS by speaking to a random national sample of 1,108 adults over the phone from Aug. 12-15. The margin of error is 3.7 percentage points. Read more at CNN.