Ahead of COVID-19 vaccine, half of Americans indicate reluctance, WSJ/NBC poll finds

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that roughly 50% of registered voters said they wanted to wait until they had more information about a COVID-19 vaccine before taking it. Only 20% of respondents said they would take a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as one becomes available, while 17% said they would not take a vaccine at all and 10% said they would eventually take a vaccine, but only if it was mandatory. Emily Brunson, PhD, a medical anthropologist at Texas State University who studies vaccine hesitancy, says the survey results demonstrate that more outreach and educational efforts are required to ensure acceptance rates are sufficiently high to achieve herd immunity. Takeda Pharmaceutical CEO Christophe Weber suggests that people need information about the benefits of vaccination to stop the spread of COVID-19. The poll also found that just 10% of Black people said they would take a vaccine once one becomes available, compared with 20% of white people and 12% of Hispanic people. Furthermore, 30% of Black people said they would not take a vaccine at all, compared with 15% of white people and 20% of Hispanic people. Additionally, the poll found that people with college or graduate school degrees were more likely to say they would take a COVID-19 vaccine.