Sixty percent of Americans say they are not likely to get the first generation of a potential coronavirus vaccine as soon as it is available, an increase from 53 percent at the end of last month, an Axios-Ipsos poll revealed this week.
Meanwhile, only 13 percent of respondents said they would immediately try a first-generation vaccine for the novel coronavirus disease. Sixteen percent said they would get it a few weeks after it becomes available, and 18 percent said they would wait a year or more.
“A plurality of respondents — 30% — said they plan to get it a few months after the vaccine first becomes available,” Axios reported.
Over 20 percent said they would not get the first-generation vaccine at all.
Citing the poll, the latest edition of the Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index, Axios noted that “reluctance” to take the first batch of a potential vaccine “intensified.”
“Only 9% now say they’re ‘very likely’ to take the first-generation vaccine, down from 17% in August; 33% say they’re ‘not at all likely’ to take it, up from 26%,” the report added.
Men are reportedly more likely to get the first-generation vaccine than women, while blacks are much more reluctant to get inoculated than Hispanics or whites.
Democrats accounted for the most significant decline among those who said they are likely to try the vaccine as soon as it is available — dropping 13 points to 43 percent.
The number of Republicans who said they are likely to immediately get the first-generation vaccine also dropped eight points to 41 percent. Independents only fell by two points to 43 percent, suggesting they are not as “tuned in to partisan bickering or political news,” Axios noted.
Nearly four in ten respondents say they expect their health insurance to be liable for the vaccine’s cost if they get one, while only four percent say they will pay for it themselves.
The Trump administration has unveiled a plan to provide the vaccine free of charge.
Axios-Ipsos pollsters surveyed 1,008 individuals age 18 or older from September 18 through 21.
The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.2 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.
There are no immunizations against any coronaviruses in humans. The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) has warned that there may never be a “silver bullet” for the contagious novel coronavirus, which originated in Wuhan, China.
However, there is a global race for developing a vaccine.
Currently, the W.H.O. is monitoring 38 candidates in clinical and 149 in pre-clinical evaluation.
There are seven candidates in the United States, including at least four in the final phase of the three-phase clinical trial process.
Trump administration officials have said they are cautiously optimistic the U.S. will develop a vaccine by early 2021, as part of the multibillion-dollar Operation Warp Speed.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Chinese coronavirus is not particularly lethal to most of the population.