More than a third of Americans would not want a Covid-19 vaccine if offered – poll

According to a new poll, 35 percent of Americans will choose not to get vaccinated for the novel coronavirus when the option becomes available – and that number turns out to be similar along all major demographics.

Only 60 percent of US citizens want to get the vaccine, a Friday NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll found, with 5 percent still unsure.

The numbers don’t seem to shift dramatically when breaking the statistics down by political affiliation either. 44 percent of Republicans and 35 percent of independents said they are going to decline the vaccine, along with a quarter of the Democratic voters.

The group that seems to be the most eager to get vaccinated are college graduates, with only 24 percent of them opposing the idea. For non-college graduates, the number almost doubles – 41 percent of them will reject the proposed cure.

Gallup published the results of a similar poll on 7 August. Notably, the general numbers were almost exactly the same: 35 percent of Americans would reject a Covid-19 vaccine, while 65 percent would accept it.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has previously raised concerns over an “anti-vax movement,” against which the country is going to have to “struggle”. However, Fauci himself is no stranger to similar skepticism.

On Tuesday, the international race for a Covid-19 cure seems to have tightened, with Russia granting the world’s first regulatory approval to the Sputnik V vaccine. However, in regard to that, Fauci said he “seriously doubts” the Russians have “actually, definitively proven that the vaccine is safe and effective.”

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