WASHINGTON, March 6, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – A growing number of Americans plan to
get vaccinated against Covid-19 with confidence increasing particularly among
African Americans, according to a Pew Research Center survey published on
Friday.
Sixty-nine percent of the adults polled last month by Pew said they have
already been vaccinated or plan to get dosed, up from 60 percent who said
they planned to get vaccinated in November.
Of the 69 percent, 19 percent said they had already received at least one
dose of Covid-19 vaccine.
Sixty-one percent of the African-Americans surveyed said they planned to
get vaccinated, up sharply from 42 percent who said they would in November,
Pew said.
The African-American population has been particularly hard hit by the
coronavirus pandemic which has killed more than 520,000 people in the United
States.
Democrats are 27 percentage points more likely than Republicans — 83
percent to 56 percent — to say they plan to get vaccinated or have already
been vaccinated, Pew said.
Two-thirds of those surveyed said they know someone who has been
hospitalized for Covid-19 or someone who has died of the disease, a figure
which rises to 78 percent among Black Americans.
Forty-nine percent of Black adults consider the coronavirus a major threat
to their personal health compared with 26 percent of white adults, Pew said.
A number of reasons were cited by the 30 percent of adults who said they
did not plan to get vaccinated. Among them were concerns about side effects
and a sense the vaccines were developed and tested too quickly.
The Pew survey of 10,000 people was conducted February 16-21, before the
approval by US authorities of the latest vaccine from Johnson & Johnson.
Andy Slavitt, White House senior advisor for COVID-19 response, said Friday
that more than 82 million Covid shots have been administered in the United
States — “more than any country in the world.”
“Nearly 55 percent of people aged 65 or older have received at least one
shot,” Slavitt said.