A new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows about half of Americans are interested in getting a new COVID-19 shot.
The poll found almost 30 percent of respondents are “very interested” and 24 percent “somewhat interested” in an updated vaccine, according to the survey.
This comes as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved updated vaccines to give Americans more protection before a possible winter uptick in infections Monday.
The poll also found “overall” concern about the spread of the virus down. Over half of respondents — 54 percent — said they were “personally” concerned about the spread of the virus. That is down over 20 points, from 77 percent, compared to a poll from three years ago. In early 2020, at the height of the pandemic, that personal concern was expressed by 90 percent of respondents.
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Other issues highlighted in the poll include fears about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines. The Reuters/Ipsos poll found 36 percent of those who said they were not interested in the vaccine cited concern over the vaccine’s safety.
The FDA this week said the updated vaccine is safe and underwent “rigorous” testing.
“It really concerns me that over 30% think it is dangerous when there’s really no credible evidence of that, yet a lot of disinformation and, honestly, fear mongering,” Dr. Jesse Goodman, an infectious disease expert at Georgetown University in Washington and a former chief scientist at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, told Reuters.
The poll was conducted online nationwide between Sept. 8-14, with responses from 4,413 U.S. adults. It has a credibility interval of 2 percentage points.
