Why only half of Americans say they would get a COVID-19 vaccine

Monday, June 1, 2020 - 07:20 in Health & Medicine

Masks won't be enough to protect us from COVID-19 in the long term (Gustavo Fring/Pexels/)There aren’t many lights at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel, but one of the few is a potential vaccine. Researchers around the world are rushing to create something that would help us return to normal life, and though most of the best estimates put a vaccine’s release in 2021, the plan may already face a major challenge: not enough people will even get the vaccine.A new poll run by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that just 49 percent of Americans say they’re planning to get vaccinated if a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available. Another 31 percent said they weren’t sure, and 20 percent said they weren’t planning get the shot. It’s too early to know exactly what percentage of people we’d need to achieve herd immunity for COVID-19, but it’s likely to...

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