The number of Americans who say they are willing to get a coronavirus vaccine as soon as possible is growing, a new poll suggests.
Conducted by USA TODAY/Suffolk University, the survey found that nearly half of respondents said they would receive the jab against COVID-19 once it is available to them.
This is nearly double the 24 percent whom reported the same sentiment in a poll from mid-October.
Fewer people also reported wanting to wait to receive the shot or being undecided compared with two months ago.
it comes on the heels of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of both Pfizer Inc’s and Moderna Inc’s vaccines, which have been administered to more than half a million people throughout the nation.
In a new poll from USA Today/Suffolk University, 46% of U.S. adults said they want to get a coronavirus vaccine as soon as possible (pictured), an increase from 24% in October
Meanwhile, 32% said they want to wait and 20% said they would never take it, declines of 45% and 22%, respectively, from the last poll. Pictured: Herbie Severe receives Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine at Hartford Healthcare in Hartford, Connecticut, December 21
For the poll, 1,000 registered voters aged 18 and older were surveyed between December 16 and December 20.
Participants were asked what they would do if they were able to take a federally-approved vaccine for COVID-19 on the day of the survey.
A total of 46 percent said they would take it as soon as they could.
One of the respondents who said she plans to be immunized is Susan Sadule, 59, a retiree from Easton, Pennsylvania.
‘We need to get control of this virus, and that would be doing my part,’ she told USA Today.
Meanwhile, 32 percent said they would wait until others have taken it, a drop from the 45 percent who gave the same response in October.
One in five respondents said they would not take the jab, a very slight decrease from the 22 percent who said so two months ago.
‘It’s not a cure; it’s barely preventative,’ Casey Case, 39, an electrician from Vacaville, California, who was surveyed, told USA Today.
‘There’s already been multiple people who’ve had drastic side effects of it already or severe allergic reactions.’
This in reference to seven people in the U.S. who have reportedly suffered serious allergic reactions to Pfizer’s vaccine. All have since recovered
An additional two percent said they were undecided.
When asked why they were not ready – at least not yet – to be given an inoculation, the majority, 62 percent, said they are worried the vaccines not safe.
Nearly 14 percent said they never take any kind of vaccine while about eight percent said they do not believe COVID-19 is a real threat.
Meanwhile, two-thirds of Democrats, 67 percent, said they would take a vaccine as soon as possible compared to one-third of Republicans.
Nearly the same percentage of conservatives, 36 percent, said they would never get the vaccine.
However, most say they do not trust politicians the most when it comes to vaccines.
Forty-three percent chose their physician as the most trusted person on whether to take the vaccine while 29 percent chose Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert.
Only five percent chose President Donald Trump and less than one percent chose President-elect Joe Biden.
When asked if employers be able to mandate that all their employees take the COVID-19 vaccine, 60 percent said no.
But, when asked if should schools be able to require that every student take the jab, only 52 percent disagreed.