1 in 5 still say they won’t get COVID-19 vaccine: poll

About one in five U.S. adults say they will not get a vaccine to protect against the coronavirus, according to a poll released Wednesday by Monmouth University.

Twenty-one percent of adults surveyed said they will not get a shot, a marginal drop from the 24 percent who said the same in a poll in March. Another 12 percent said will let other people get the vaccine first “to see how it goes.”

The poll’s results come amid mushrooming concerns over vaccine hesitancy, which were exacerbated this week after federal officials recommended a pause in the administration of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine over rare instances of blood clots in people who go the shot. 

“The number of people who have been skittish about the vaccine has dropped as more Americans line up for the shot, but the hard core group who want to avoid it at all costs has barely budged. The recent news about J&J vaccines is probably not going to help that situation,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute.

“On the other hand, it might not make it all that much worse since much of this reluctance is really ingrained in partisan identity.”

The survey showed stark divisions along party lines over vaccine hesitancy. Forty-three percent of registered Republicans said they would not get a shot, compared with 22 percent of independents and 5 percent of Democrats.

Men were also slightly more likely than women to say they wouldn’t get a shot, with 24 percent of men saying they would not receive one compared with 19 percent of women.

Several previous polls have showed that Republicans, and particularly Republican men, are more hesitant to receive a shot. 

To combat the trend, the White House has deployed a slew of top officials, businesses, churches and more to appeal to Republicans to get vaccine shots.

Overall, 51 percent of the adult population reports having already received at least one dose of a vaccine and another 14 percent said they plan to get one as soon as possible.

The Monmouth University survey polled 800 adults in the U.S. from April 8-12 and has a margin of error of 3.5 percent.