Poll: Number of Americans willing to get COVID-19 vaccine falls to new low amid fears Trump is putting politics before safety

https://news.yahoo.com/poll-number-of-americans-willing-to-get-a-vaccination-falls-as-fears-mount-that-trump-is-putting-politics-before-safety-203727770.html

In early May, most Americans (55 percent) said they would get vaccinated for COVID-19 if and when a vaccine becomes available. 

Now, four months later, less than a third of Americans (32 percent) say they plan to get vaccinated, according to the latest Yahoo News/YouGov poll — a stunning 23-point decline that reflects rising concern about the politicization of the vaccine process and underscores how challenging it will be to stop the pandemic through vaccination alone.

The survey, which was conducted from Sept. 9 to 11, found for the first time that more Americans say they would not get vaccinated (33 percent) or that they’re not sure (34 percent) than say they would. As recently as late July, 42 percent of Americans had said they planned to get vaccinated, meaning 10 percent of the public has moved into the “no” or “not sure” column over the last month or so.

The question is why. The data shows that the accelerated pace of President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed vaccine program combined with fears that the safety of the vaccine could be compromised if politics takes precedence over science have served to transform many of those previously willing to get vaccinated against COVID-19 into skeptics.

These newer skeptics tend to be Democrats.

The Yahoo News/YouGov poll has consistently found a hard-line group of anti-vaccination Americans who say they will not get vaccinated for COVID-19 no matter what. They make up about 20 percent of the population, and they are far more concentrated on the right (where 39 percent of Trump supporters say they will never get vaccinated) than on the left (where just 6 percent of Biden supporters say the same).   ...