According to a new survey published on Wednesday, just over half of Americans who remain unvaccinated against Covid still believe the vaccine is more dangerous than the Covid despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. According to the ongoing Kaiser Family Foundation survey, unvaccinated adults still also largely believe the news media have enlarged the severity of Covid and are less likely than vaccinated adults to wear a mask in public.
The group surveyed 1,500 U.S. adults between July 15 and 27 for this survey. They found little change among those people who had to harden attitudes about vaccination. Among those surveyed them 14% said they wouldn’t get vaccinated, the same proportion as in December.
“Among those who say they will ‘definitely not’ get a vaccine, 75% say the news is exaggerated. The sharply different views of the vaccinated and unvaccinated help to explain the contentiousness of ongoing policy debates about vaccine mandates,” KFF said in its report.
Adults who have yet to get vaccinated out of the 23% said they believe vaccines are very or extremely ineffective at preventing death despite strong evidence that they are. Kaiser said, “A narrow majority (53%) of unvaccinated adults believe the vaccine poses a bigger risk to their health than COVID-19 itself. In contrast, an overwhelming majority (88%) of vaccinated adults say that getting infected with COVID-19 is a bigger risk to their health than the vaccine.”
KFF said the increase in Covid cases and the news of the Delta variant spreading in the U.S. made some people say that they will avoid large gathers and wear the mask, but mostly they are vaccinated, people. In the survey, it was found that 57% of unvaccinated people believe that news media has enlarged the impact of Covid. In comparison, 53% said media is correct, and 24% said media underestimated its severity.
53% of vaccinated adults say they wear masks in other indoor places and grocery stores, compared to 44% of unvaccinated adults. Unvaccinated Republicans drive these differences to a large extent. Majorities of Republicans say they never wear masks in crowded outdoor places, grocery stores, or workplaces. 8% of unvaccinated people said they would likely get vaccinated by the end of the year. Of the adults who remain unvaccinated, 10% said before they get vaccinated, they want to see how it works for others. Another 3% say they will be vaccinated if required.