Why The Unvaccinated Will Most Likely Remain That Way
Image: The Atlantic
Tammy Webber and Emily Swanson write that among American adults who have not yet received a vaccine, 35% say they probably will not, and 45% say they definitely will not, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. On the other hand, 3% say they definitely will get the shots, though another 16% say they probably will.
Vaccinated vs. Unvaccinated
64% of unvaccinated Americans have little to no confidence the shots are effective against variants — including the delta variant that officials say is responsible for 83% of new cases in the U.S. In contrast, 86% of those who have already been vaccinated have at least some confidence that the vaccines will work.
Nationally, 56.4% of all Americans, including children, have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the CDC. White House officials have said recently that vaccinations are beginning to increase in some states where rates are lagging behind and COVID-19 cases are rising, including in Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri and Nevada.
Still, just over 40% of Louisiana’s population has received at least one dose, and the state reported 5,388 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday — the third-highest single-day figure since the pandemic began. Hospitalizations also rose steeply in the last month.
Overall, 54% of Americans are at least somewhat concerned that they or someone in their family will be infected, including 27% who are very concerned. That’s up from a month ago, but below the beginning of the year when about 7 in 10 Americans said they were at least somewhat concerned that they or someone they knew would be infected.
Republicans And Democrats On Being Unvaccinated
70% of Democrats say they’re at least somewhat concerned about someone close to them being infected while only 38% of Republicans say so. Republicans are far more likely to say they have not been vaccinated and definitely or probably won’t be at 43% while only 10% of Democrats say so.
Biden and the Pandemic
66% of Americans continue to approve of how Biden is handling the pandemic — higher than Biden’s overall approval rating of 59%. The difference is fueled largely by Republicans, 32% of whom say they approve of Biden’s handling of COVID-19 compared with 15% who approve of him overall. About 9 in 10 Democrats approve of Biden overall and for his handling of the pandemic.
The Unvaccinated By Age and Education
37% of those under age 45 say they haven’t and likely won’t get the shots, compared with just 16% of those older. And those without college degrees are more likely than those with them to say they aren’t and won’t be vaccinated, 30% to 18%.
The Poll
The AP-NORC poll of 1,308 adults was conducted July 15-19 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
