What looked like the hard part of the vaccination push may be over - rushing doses to millions of people eager to get the shot.
Now health officials may be facing the really hard part.
An ongoing Kaiser Family Foundation survey tracking interest in the vaccine shows signs that enthusiasm may be reaching a plateau.
The share of adults who said they had either already received the vaccine or planned to get it as soon as possible crept up just slightly from 61% in March to 64% in April, while the amount of people saying they would "wait and see" stayed relatively stable.
Meanwhile, less than half of people expressed faith in the Johnson & Johnson vaccine after the CDC temporarily paused its use over concerns about rare but serious cases of blood clots. While 69% of people still expressed confidence in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, overall concern among unvaccinated people has increased since the pause.
Dr. Sydney Wolfe is a regulatory expert and co-founder of the Public Citizen Health Research Group. He says six months of data on the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines demonstrates safety and consistent results.
"A sharp decrease in deaths from coronavirus, a sharp decrease in cases in direct proportion to people who've been vaccinated. That's sort of the bottom line, so to speak: the vaccine works."
There have been some signs of continuing progress in reducing vaccine hesitancy. The share of Republicans who said they will "definitely not" get the vaccine dropped significantly from 29% in March to 20% in April.
