Poll: More Americans willing to get vaccinated against COVID-19

More Americans have indicated that they are willing to get vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a new poll.

A NPR-PBS NewsHour-Marist poll published on Friday found that the number of respondents who answered “no” when asked if they will choose to be vaccinated if a COVID-19 vaccine was made available to them dropped 5 percentage points. 

The poll, which was conducted between Aug. 26 and Tuesday, found that 19 percent responded “no” regarding whether they will choose to be vaccinated. In comparison, a Marist poll conducted between July 21 and July 29 found that 24 percent of people polled said “no.”

The NPR-PBS NewsHour-Marist poll also found that 79 percent of respondents said they had already received or will get the COVID-19 vaccine. The Marist poll conducted near the end of July found that 74 percent of respondents had already received or plan to receive the vaccine.

The issue of vaccination has largely fallen along partisan lines. About 95 percent of Democrats surveyed indicated in the NPR-PBS NewsHour-Marist poll that they have already been vaccinated or will get vaccinated. Only 62 percent of Republicans polled said the same.

The poll also found that 37 percent of Republican respondents will not get the COVID-19 vaccine. 

Given the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) recent full approval of the Pfizer vaccine, officials are hoping that the decision will give some who were otherwise vaccine hesitant the green light to get inoculated. The decision could also prompt businesses to enforce vaccine requirements — steps that could save lives as the United States sees a growing number of COVID-19 cases again.

The U.S. saw over 171,000 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday and over 162,000 the day before, which seems to closely track what health officials have warned earlier this summer about a possibility of reaching several hundred thousand daily COVID-19 cases in the fall.

Roughly 73 percent of Americans aged 12 years and older have been at least partially vaccinated, while 62 percent are fully vaccinated. 

NPR-PBS NewsHour-Marist poll was conducted between Aug. 26 and Tuesday and polled 1,241 adults contacted by mobile phones and landlines. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.