The national opinion poll of 1,005 people was conducted on Monday and Tuesday this week and suggests that as the pace of vaccinations against the coronavirus picks up, more people are wanting to be vaccinated, according to Reuters.
The number of respondents saying they were “very interested” in getting vaccinated jumped to 54 percent, up from 41 percent in a January survey and 38 percent last May, before the vaccine had been developed.
Overall interest in the vaccine and getting vaccinated has increased in the past year with both whites and racial minorities, with about six in 10 whites and five in 10 members of minority groups now expressing a high level of interest, reports US News.
One thing that remains unchanged from a previous poll done in May 2020 is the number of people who are not interested in being vaccinated. This accounts for 27 percent of respondents.
What about the social challenges?
Interestingly, with the possibility that there may be a light at the end of the year-long tunnel of deprivation the coronavirus has caused, the poll shows that the majority of Americans are now thinking of limiting the ways in which unvaccinated people can mix in public.
Over two-thirds of respondents or 72 percent said it was important to know “if the people around me have been vaccinated,” according to the poll.
The majority – 62 percent – said unvaccinated people should not be allowed to travel on airplanes, while 55 percent said the unvaccinated should not be allowed to work out in public gyms, attend movie theaters or public concerts.
A question about the workplace showed a surprising result. A total of 60 percent of those polled said they wanted to work for an employer “who requires everyone to get a coronavirus vaccine before returning to the office” and 56 percent thought unvaccinated workers should stay home.
A change in status?
As of Friday, according to The Hill. fully 18 percent of Americans have received at least their first shot of the vaccine and President Biden in a public address on Thursday night said all adults will be able to receive a vaccine by May.
And as people return to the workplace, companies are going to have to address employee’s concerns over those not vaccinated.
Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said the poll responses made sense, given the social restrictions placed on everyone over the past year.
“People are saying: ‘If I’m vaccinated, it’s going to change my life,’” Adalja said. “And if you’re not vaccinated, that’s your choice. But you’re going to be in a different status because you might be a carrier of this virus, so you could spread it to another unvaccinated person.”
Perhaps not surprisingly, the poll results were somewhat split along party lines. This can be seen in the graphics of the Reuters/Ipsos vaccine poll.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online, in English, throughout the United States. It had a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of 4 percentage points.
