Unvaccinated Americans Say Vaccines Are Riskier Than COVID-19, Poll Finds | national news

A large portion of unvaccinated Americans say the COVID-19 vaccine poses a greater risk to their health than the virus itself, according to a poll released Tuesday – contradicting broad agreements among scientists on vaccine safety.

Tuesday’s poll found that 37% of unvaccinated respondents believe vaccines pose a greater health risk than COVID-19. Almost 35% of those polled say they are not sure, and only 29% say it is riskier to contract the virus than to be vaccinated, according to the Yahoo News / YouGov poll, which reached 1,715 American adults between July 13 and July 15. The survey has a 2.7% margin of error.

With a recent increase in cases in many states and a slowdown in vaccination rates, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Rochelle Walensky refers to COVID-19 Friday like now the “pandemic of the unvaccinated”. Walensky noted at the same press briefing that 97% of new hospitalizations are unvaccinated patients. In a Senate hearing on Tuesday, the CDC director said the delta variant is responsible for more than 80% of new coronavirus infections, while nearly two-thirds of US counties have vaccine coverage rates below 40%.

“In areas where vaccination coverage is low, cases and hospitalizations start to climb again,” Walensky said at the hearing.

The most common reasons for hesitation nationwide are concerns about side effects (50.6%) and lack of confidence in COVID-19 vaccines (47.6%), according to the bureau’s survey . The Yahoo News / YouGov poll also found that 45% of unvaccinated respondents do not trust vaccines, while 12% say they are not worried about contracting the virus and 9% say they have had it before. .

Another disturbing finding from the poll is that a majority of unvaccinated Americans may not be influenced. More than 50% of those polled say they will never get the vaccine, while 22% say they are not sure and 20% say they will continue to wait “to see what happens to others before decide, “according to Yahoo News / YouGov.