Everyone wants to put an end to the coronavirus pandemic, but it doesn’t seem like it’s going away anytime soon. Healthcare experts have hope that a vaccine will be available in early 2021, but not everyone sees a vaccine as a perfect solution to the problem. In fact, many Americans said they wouldn’t take the vaccine, even if it was available today.
COVID-19 Vaccine
According to a recent Gallup poll, roughly one in three Americans said they would not take the COVID-19 vaccine. Here’s a look at some interesting data from that poll, which asked “Would you take an FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine if it were available today at no charge to you?”
- 65% of Americans said they would take it, 35% said they wouldn’t
- Of those who identified as a Democrat, 81% said they’d take it.
- Of those who identified as a Independent, 59% said they’d take it.
- Of those who identified as a Republican, 47% said they’d take it.
- Interestingly, of the age groups analyzed, the group with the highest percentage of people saying they would take the vaccine were those in the 18-29 years old group (76%)
- 65% of both men and women said they’d take the vaccine.
Obviously this poll has plenty of caveats, because we know that the number of anti-vaxers in the US is far less than one in three. I’m certainly not an anti-vaxer, but I definitely wouldn’t be one of the first ones in line to get a COVID-19 vaccine. There is simply too much of an unknown risk at this time, which is why I think this poll is a little misleading. I’m confident that the numbers would be much higher if the vaccine had been proven successful on a long-term scale. Even though the question states “FDA approved vaccine”, we’re still way too early in this process to know enough about the potential long-term issues that could come with a vaccine.
A vaccine will almost assuredly help us control the coronavirus in the future, but it’s not a perfectly risk free option, which is why I believe one in three in this poll said they wouldn’t get the vaccine. It’s too difficult to put a timeline on when we’ll know enough about potential long term effects of both the virus and the vaccine. I’m cheering for a vaccine, but again, I won’t be there on the first day they are offered at the clinic either.