Roughly 1 in 4 Americans said they have little or no interest in taking a vaccine to combat the novel coronavirus, the results of a poll revealed Thursday.
Conducted by Ipsos for Reuters, the polling found a fair share of Americans are reluctant to receive a shot to fight COVID-19, the contagious disease caused by the coronavirus.
Fourteen percent of respondents said they are not at all interested in taking a vaccine, 10% said they are not very interested and 11% said they are unsure, Reuters reported.
The rest of the people surveyed — fewer than two-thirds of all respondents — said they were either “very” or “somewhat” interested in a coronavirus vaccine, the report said.
Of the 21% who said they have little or no interest in a coronavirus vaccine, over 40% said they believe any vaccine would be riskier than the actual disease, Reuters reported.
More than 93,000 people in the U.S. have died as a result of contracting COVID-19 since the first domestic novel coronavirus infections were reported roughly four months ago.
Public health officials have said it may take up to 18 months to have a vaccine ready and available, while President Trump said it could happen as soon as later this year.
The survey was conducted online between May 13-19 and involved polling 4,428 adults in the U.S., Reuters reported. It has a credibility interval of plus or minus 2 percentage points, the report said.
Other polling conducted earlier this month by Ipsos for ABC News similarly found that 25% of roughly 500 people surveyed said they were not likely to get vaccinated if possible.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.