Lack of trust in vaccine top reason among unvaccinated voters

 A plurality of voters who are not yet vaccinated said the reason they have yet to get their shots is they don't trust the vaccine, a new Hill-HarrisX poll finds.

Thirty-seven percent of registered voters who have not been vaccinated in the May 21-23 survey said the reason is because they do not trust the vaccine.

Thirty-five percent of respondents who are not vaccinated said they are waiting to see how others respond.

Nineteen percent said none of the above while 9 percent said they are healthy and do not feel it is necessary to take the vaccine. 

Fifty-two percent of all registered voters surveyed said they are fully vaccinated while 13 percent said they are partially vaccinated.

Thirty-five percent of respondents said they are not vaccinated.

Forty-one percent of independents, 35 percent of Republicans and 28 percent of Democrats have yet to be vaccinated, according to the poll.

Fifty-four percent of Republican voters who have yet to get their shot said the reason is due to a lack of trust in the vaccine.

A plurality of Democrats and independents who are not vaccinated yet said they are waiting to see how others react, at 41 percent and 44 percent, respectively.

"The final third of Americans that are yet to take the coronavirus shot will be the most difficult to vaccinate, the data suggests, complicating the path to herd immunity," Dritan Nesho, CEO and chief pollster at HarrisX, told Hill.TV.

"The unvaccinated largely fall into two groups:  a third are waiting to see how others respond to the vaccine and could be convinced to vaccinate with more information.  Their profile is younger, male, urban and higher income. Close to the remaining half – 46 percent -- say they either don’t trust the vaccine or do not believe it is necessary to be vaccinated. Resistance due to lack of trust is higher among unvaccinated white, female, elderly, lower income and lower educated voters who live in rural and suburban areas and over index on being Republican voters," Nesho added. 

The survey comes before Memorial Day weekend and a few weeks before the July 4th holiday, a goal post of the Biden administration to get 70 percent of the country vaccinated. 

The most recent Hill-HarrisX poll was conducted online among 1,899 registered voters. It has a margin of error of 2.25 percentage points.

https://thehill.com/hilltv/what-americas-thinking/555805-poll-lack-of-trust-in-vaccine-top-reason-among-unvaccinated