Most Democrats Plan to Get New COVID Shot, Poll Says
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new survey exposes a major rift between Democrats and Republicans when it comes to how they interpret the COVID-19 narrative and whether they will take the new vaccine or not.
On Wednesday morning, two major U.S. networks published conflicting headlines on how many Americans plan to take the new shot.
Nearly half of all adults in the United States plan to get the newly recommended COVID-19 vaccine, according to results from a survey released Wednesday. https://t.co/T4qw5fpPFl
— ABC News (@ABC) September 27, 2023
“Almost half of US adults plan to get the new COVID-19 vaccine, survey finds,” ABC News ran as a headline – while CNN wrote that “Only about 1 in 4 American adults definitely wants the updated Covid-19 vaccine, new survey finds.”
Only about 1 in 4 American adults definitely wants the updated Covid-19 vaccine, according to a new survey https://t.co/FejOue9rFc
— CNN (@CNN) September 27, 2023
The results, however, stem from the same poll, conducted by health policy organization KFF. So, given the fact that it’s commonplace to lie with statistics, what does the survey actually say?
According to KFF, 23 percent of U.S. adults state they will definitely get the new vaccine, 23 percent say they will probably get it while 19 percent say they will probably not get it and 33 percent say they will definitely not get it.
“There is a little glimpse of optimism in the sense that we have about 40% of the population that can be persuaded, convinced, reassured, comforted to receive this vaccine,” Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University told CNN.
Nearly four in ten (37 percent) of people who previously received a COVID-19 vaccine say that they probably or definitely won’t get the new shot.
The groups most likely to say they definitely or probably will get the new vaccine include people at least 65 years old (64 percent) and Democrats (70 percent). Conversely, 76 percent of Republicans are unlikely to take the new mRNA injection.
Democrats are also more likely to believe the media narrative that there is a new wave of COVID-19 infections – 77 percent of Democrats think this is true. In contrast, more than half (51 percent) of Republicans state that there is no new wave.
The survey reports that Democrats are three times as likely over Republicans to have taken precautions due to media reports – such as masking in public, forgoing eating at restaurants and avoiding large gatherings.