Coronavirus

How many unvaccinated Americans will get a COVID shot? Poll finds most will refuse

By vm-guest and Jeremy Harper
Of Americans who have not been vaccinated for COVID, 11 percent say they’ll get a shot, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll. (AFP | Getty Images)
Of Americans who have not been vaccinated for COVID, 11 percent say they’ll get a shot, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll. (AFP | Getty Images)

A majority of Americans who haven't gotten vaccinated said in a new poll that they won't get a COVID shot.

In The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll this week, 64 percent of respondents said they have gotten a COVID-19 vaccine and 35 percent said they haven't.

Of the respondents who haven't gotten a shot, 61 percent said they wouldn't get a COVID vaccine, with 34 percent saying they would "definitely" not get a shot and 27 percent said they "probably" wouldn't.

Meanwhile, 38 percent said they would get a shot, with 11 percent saying they will "definitely" get vaccinated and 27 percent saying they "probably" will.

Respondents are less willing to get vaccinated than they were when surveyed March 25-29 when 43 percent of Americans who weren't vaccinated said they won't get a shot compared with 61 percent in the latest poll.

The number of unvaccinated people who said they will probably or definitely get a shot also decreased, from 57 percent in March to 38 percent in the latest survey.

President Joe Biden is meeting with state governors to discuss how to get more Americans vaccinated.

Biden has set a goal of having at least 70 percent of Americans receive one dose of the vaccine by July Fourth and fully vaccinating 160 million people by then, PBS reported.

As of May 10, at least 152.8 million people in the U.S. have received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine, including at least 115 million people who have been fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Forty-six percent of the population has received at least one dose.

People are also less worried about getting infected with the coronavirus. In the poll, 24 percent of respondents said they were "extremely" or "very worried" that they or a family member may get infected compared with 35 percent who said the same a month ago.

Meanwhile, 47 percent of Americans said they were "not too" or "not at all worried" about getting sick compared with 32 percent who said the same in last month's poll.

The most recent survey was conducted April 29-May 3 with a sample size of 1,842 adults and a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.

more than 32 million coronavirus cases

This story was originally published May 13, 2021 at 4:45 AM with the headline "How many unvaccinated Americans will get a COVID shot? Poll finds most will refuse."