Americans who identify as Democrats are far more likely to be vaccinated against COVID-19 than people affiliated with other political parties, a new poll finds.
The survey, which was conducted by Gallup, found that nine in 10 Democrats say they are fully vaccinated.
Comparatively, just two-thirds of Independents and half of Republicans report having received their Covid shots.
The findings add to a growing body of evidence that political affiliation is a likely predictor of vaccination status.
But the pollsters say that there is not only a political divide when it comes to vaccination rates but also a divide in understanding the risks of COVID-19.
A new poll looked at vaccination rates by political affiliation as well as understanding of vaccine efficacy and COVID-19 hospitalization risk. Pictured: Edward Williams, 62, a resident at Hebrew Home at Riverdale, receives a COVID-19 booster shot in New York, September 27
As of September 2021, 92% of Democrats say they have received a COVID-19 vaccine compared to 66% of Independents and 56% of Republicans (above)
Gallup has been tracking COVID-19 vaccination rates among adults by political affiliation since January 2021.
The poll found that, as of September 2021, 92 pecent of Democrats say they are fully vaccinated against Covid.
By comparison, 68 percent of Independents and 56 percent of Republicans report being inoculated against the virus.
This means that 1.6 times more liberals than conservatives have been given their shots.
The figures also demonstrate a stark divide from earlier in the pandemic when vaccination rates did not diverge so greatly.
According to the poll, in January 2021, 12 percent of Democrats reported having received shots compared to eight percent of Independents and seven percent of Republicans.
Rates did not begin to greatly differ until April 2021 when 74 percent of Democrats said they were fully immunized compared to 52 percent of Independents and 39 percent of Republicans.
However, the pollsters believe that the variance in vaccination rates may be due to a difference in understanding of the risks of COVID-19 and the effectiveness of the vaccines.
Gallup surveyed more than 3,000 adults about their understanding of vaccine efficacy and the likelihood of hospitalization after contracting COVID-19.
For both vaccinated and unvaccinated adults, less than one percent end up hospitalized. However, very few respondents gave the correct answer.
A total of 42% of Democrats said, correctly, that fewer than 1% of vaccinated people end hospitalized compared to 33% of Republicans
For the hospitalization risk for unvaccinated people, just 2% percent of Democrats gave the correct figure of less than 1% compared with 16% Republicans
For the hospitalization risk for unvaccinated people, just two percent of Democrats gave the correct figure compared with 16 percent Republicans.
A plurality of Democrats, 41 percent, said they believed the risk for people who haven’t had their shots to end up hospitalized with COVID-19 was 50 percent.
Meanwhile, a plurality of Republicans at 20 percent said the risk was between two percent and five percent.
When it came to vaccinated adults, interestingly, two percent of Democrats and seven percent of Republicans said 50 percent of vaccinated people end up hospitalized.
Next, the pollsters looked at individual responses to calculate an estimated efficacy rate for each group.
Data suggest that vaccines are 99 percent effective at reducing the risk of hospitalization and death due to Covid.
Individual answers showed that the estimated efficacy rate of the vaccine for Democrats was 88% in comparison with 50% for Republicans and 75% for Independents
Overall, respondents gave an efficacy rate of about 80 percent.
The team found that Democrats tended to believe the efficacy was 88 percent compare to 50 percent of Republicans and 75 percent for Independents.
‘Democrats are more likely to overstate hospitalization risks for unvaccinated people, which may fuel efforts, often led by Democratic Party leaders, to enforce both mask and vaccine mandates,’ the authors wrote.
‘At the same time, Republicans overstate risks to vaccinated people, leading to very low vaccine efficacy estimates.
‘This may be one of the reasons that so many Republicans have been reluctant to get the COVID-19 vaccine…If so, vaccine acceptance is unlikely to significantly increase among Republicans until their trusted media or other information sources emphasize the benefits of vaccination.’