Poll: Many people remain reluctant to get vaccinated for COVID

The race is on to vaccinate as many Americans as possible against COVID-19, but a significant number of people in the United States are still reluctant to get the shots, even in places where they are plentiful. That’s according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

The poll reports that 25% of Americans say they probably or definitely will not get vaccinated.

The holdouts are leery about possible side effects. They tend to be Republican, and they are usually younger and less susceptible to becoming critically ill or dying if they catch COVID-19.

There’s been a slight shift, though, since the first weeks of the nation’s largest-ever vaccination campaign, which began in mid-December. An AP-NORC poll conducted in late January showed that 67% of adult Americans were willing to get vaccinated or had already received at least one shot. Now that figure has climbed to 75%.

More than 101.8 million people, or 30.7% of the U.S. population, have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some 57.9 million people, or 17.5% of the population, have completed their vaccination.

Meanwhile, the seven-day rolling average for daily new cases in the U.S. increased over the past two weeks from 54,696 on March 18 to 65,684 on Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The seven-day rolling average for daily new deaths in the U.S. decreased over the past two weeks decreased from 1,228 on March 18 to 869 on Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University.