Americans Less Willing To Take Coronavirus Vaccine: Gallup [POLL]

NEW YORK — Whether Americans would be willing to get vaccinated against the new coronavirus seems to be less likely than earlier in the year.

According to the Gallup poll, in July, 66 percent of those polled would get the vaccination. In August, that dropped to 61 percent.

The latest poll with September numbers, which was published Monday, found that only 50 percent of Americans would be taking the shot, down an additional 11 percentage points.

Broken down by political party, Gallup said Democrats earlier in the year were enthusiastic about taking a vaccine for the new coronavirus, but they went from a high of 83 percent July 20-26 to 53 percent Sept. 14-27.

Republicans ended up about the same — 46 percent in July 20-26 up to 49 percent Sept. 14-27 — after dipping as low as 37 percent in the last half of August.

The Gallup organization said that the decline in enthusiasm for a vaccine among Democrats follows the Labor Day announcement by President Donald Trump that a vaccine could be ready to go in October, or at least before the election.

Among those most willing to be vaccinated are those Americans who are age 18 to 34 — 62 percent. The 35-to-54s and the 55-pluses are lower: 47 and 44 percent, respectively.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday during a new conference that it was important to think ahead as to when a vaccine becomes available to the public.

He said the first question is, will the American people trust the vaccine?

A committee of professionals has been convened to review the protocols and efficacy of a vaccine, Cuomo said.

"If that committee tells me the vaccine is safe, I will tell the people the vaccine is safe," he said.

Gallup said the results for this poll were based on self-administered web surveys conducted Sept. 14-27, with a random sample of 2,730 adults, age 18 and older, who are members of the Gallup Panel. The margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.

Now it's your turn to weigh in on the issue. Vote in our unscientific poll and tell us why in the comments.