Morning Consult has an interesting poll in an effort to figure out why the vaccination effort has stalled.
Please consider Why Holdouts Haven’t Gotten a COVID-19 Shot, in Their Own Words
As of Tuesday, 66.2 percent of adults had gotten at least their first shot, shy of the White House’s goal of 70 percent by July 4. That failure underscores just how difficult it is to finish the last stretch of any public health campaign — and a new Morning Consult/Politico survey suggests many unvaccinated adults aren’t budging.
- Roughly a quarter of respondents in the June 25-28 survey said they were worried about the safety or efficacy of the shots
- Another quarter said they didn’t trust the vaccine development process,
- 10% of respondents listed misinformation about the vaccines, skepticism of drug companies or general anti-government or anti-vaccine sentiment.
- Some believe the vaccine affects women’s fertility — a rumor that’s spread on social media but has no scientific basis — while others said they didn’t want to be “guinea pigs” for the shots, which have already been tested in large clinical trials.
- Another 7 percent said they don’t feel they’re at risk, perhaps because they’ve already had COVID-19. Six percent plan to get the shot but haven’t gotten around to it yet.
Mish
The US has shown a steady decline in public confidence in official institutions. A recently-published study by https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2021/us-ranks-last-among-46-countries-in-trust-in-media-reuters-institute-report-finds/found that Americans have the lowest trust in media of adults in 46 countries. The press has been a major channel for messaging about the desirability of getting vaccinated and Covid generally.
And if you have been paying attention at all, the official responses to Covid have been so obviously politicized as to undermine confidence. The flip flop on masks. The flip flop (and maybe flop back) on the lab leak theory). The failure to acknowledge asymptomatic transmission (yet the full court press to vaccinate teens and children would seem to be all about that). CDC chief Rochelle Wallesnky (along with some public service ads) falsely saying the Covid vaccines prevent getting infected. The failure to acknowledge aerosol transmission, and even now, muddled discussions on official sites. The “mission accomplished” approach, over the objections of the national and largest California nurses’ unions. Readers no doubt can add to this list.
In other words, the US has aggressively pre-positioned itself to have difficulty in getting compliance if its wager on the vaccines doesn’t work out as planned and it has to exhort the public to engage in non-pharmaceutical interventions again, like masking up and staying largely at home.