Virtually half of American adults say they need to get a Covid vaccine, in line with a CDC research

Tykerra Wilson, a medical receptionist at a doctor’s office in Cambridge, receives her second dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine on February 5, 2021 at the Talbot County Community Center in Easton, MD.

Will Newton | The Washington Post | Getty Images

Confidence in the coronavirus vaccine increased According to a new federal study released Tuesday, nearly half of Americans said they would likely get vaccinated once the sting became available.

Before Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine shipments hit the arms of millions of Americans in the United States in December, national surveys indicated that many adults were reluctant to get vaccinated for the disease.

According to the new study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 39.4% of adult Americans surveyed in September said they were completely safe or very likely to be vaccinated. However, that number rose to just over 49% by December as the drugs received emergency approval from the federal government, the CDC found.

When people who said they were likely to be vaccinated were included in the count, confidence rose to 68% in December. Confidence in the drugs grew most in adults 65 and over, who were among the first Americans to receive the shots.

Between September and December, fewer people said they did not intend to get a vaccine once it became available. “Unintentional vaccine” decreased from 38.1% to 32.1%, according to the study.

However, trust between the population groups varied. Younger adults, women, blacks, people who live in non-urban areas, and people with lower levels of education were more likely to say they didn’t want the vaccine. People on lower incomes and people without health insurance also didn’t say they didn’t want to be vaccinated, according to the study.

“Although confidence in COVID-19 vaccines increased in the US from September to December 2020, additional efforts are required to adjust messages and implement strategies to further increase public confidence at large and within specific subpopulations,” said the Researchers in the study.

The CDC surveyed more than 3,500 adults in September and more than 2,000 adults in December. According to the study, only 123 people completed both surveys in September and December.

So far, the US has dispensed more than 59 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines and has given just over 42.4 million doses, according to recent data from the CDC. A separate study published February 1 found that most of the nearly 13 million people who were given at least one shot of a Covid-19 vaccine within the first month after the drugs were distributed were women who were 50 Years or older and probably not Spanish and white.

Scientists have warned that new and highly contagious variants of the virus may need more people to be vaccinated to achieve what is known as herd immunity. Dr. Jay Butler, CDC’s assistant director on infectious diseases, previously told the Infectious Diseases Society of America that current models require 70% to 75% of people to be vaccinated in order for the population to achieve herd immunity.

However, if a faster-spreading virus became the dominant strain, it would likely push that percentage down to as high as 85%, he said.

Earlier Tuesday, White House Task Force Covid-19 officials announced that they would begin delivering doses of Covid-19 vaccines directly to community health centers for fair access to the shots.

The program, which, in addition to doses sent directly to states and pharmacy chains, aims to expand vaccine supplies to some of the hardest-hit communities, such as: B. on the homeless, agricultural migrant workers, residents of social housing and those with Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, chair of the White House’s Covid-19 Health Equity Task Force, said English skills were limited.

“Justice is our north star here,” Nunez-Smith said during a press conference. “These efforts, which focus on direct referral to community health centers, are really about connecting with hard-to-reach populations across the country.”