As healthcare workers here in the Bay Area and across the nation are getting the first doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, a new survey indicates people are more willing now to get a shot now once it becomes available.
A new Kaiser Family Foundation survey finds 71% of the public would definitely or probably get a vaccine if experts say it is safe and it is made available for free.
That is an increase from 63% of people who said they would get the vaccine in a September survey, and there were increases across many demographic groups.
About 27% of people are still hesitant and say they probably or definitely would not get a COVID-19 vaccine even if it were free and deemed safe by scientists.
People who were most likely to be hesitant about getting the vaccine were Republicans (42%), people aged 30 to 49 (36%), rural residents (35%) and Black Americans (35%).
“One thing that is encouraging is that adults ages 65 and over who are at the highest risk for COVID-19 complications if they do get sick, that group is much more willing to be vaccinated,” said Liz Hamel, Vice President and Director of Public Opinion and Survey Research at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
Hamel says the relative risk also helps explain why adults 30-49 are hesitant to get the vaccine, although younger Americans are more eager to get it than the general public.
The most common reasons given by skeptics were concerns over side effects, mistrust of the government and the speed with which it was developed.
A third of essential workers and nearly three in ten healthcare workers also said they probably would not get the vaccine.
