More than a third of Americans say they would not get a COVID-19 vaccine right now, even if were free and FDA-approved, according to a new Gallup poll.
Political party affiliation is the biggest difference-maker as 81% of Democrats said they would get a vaccine, while less than half of Republicans, 47%, said they would get the vaccine.
White Americans are more likely than non-White Americans to say they would get a vaccine if it was available, 67% to 59%. That’s despite the fact that “some racial and ethnic minority groups are being disproportionately affected by COVID-19,” as the CDC puts it.
At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the federal government poured $10 billion into “Operation Warp Speed,” which aims to deliver 300 million doses of a vaccine to Americans by January 2021.
Since then, the government has provided funding to several different companies to develop vaccines, including $1.6 billion to Novavax, $1.95 billion to Pfizer, $1 billion to Johnson & Johnson, and $1.2 billion to AstraZenca.
Moderna announced on July 27 that it was entering a phase 3 clinical trial of its vaccine, which will enroll about 30,000 adult volunteers. Pfizer also recently announced that it was entering phase 3 with its vaccine.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, warned Friday during a conversation at the Brown University School of Public Health that a vaccine isn’t a cure-all. – READ MORE
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