Survey shows reasons unvaccinated adults have not gotten vaccinated against COVID-19
According to the CDC, about 15% of adults currently remain unvaccinated against COVID-19. A survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau explains the reasons why some adults 18 and over still have not gotten the vaccine.
The findings are based on the newest phase of the experimental Household Pulse Survey (HPS) conducted between December 1 and 13, and released last week.
About 50% of unvaccinated adults have reported that they are concerned about potential side effects, 42% report that they "do not trust" the vaccine, less than 10% reported that their doctor had recommended them not to get it and 2% reported that it was difficult for them to obtain the vaccine.
Adults who had received at least one dose of the vaccine differed from those who had not received any doses of the vaccine across several measures.
Unvaccinated participants were shown to be younger than those who had received at least one dose. Roughly 75% of unvaccinated participants were under the age of 50. Among the vaccinated, less than 50% were under age 50.
In addition, the survey reports unvaccinated participants had lower levels of education on average compared to vaccinated participants. Participants who had received at least one dose of the vaccine were twice as likely to have a college degree compared to unvaccinated participants.
Unvaccinated adults were also less likely to be married compared to vaccinated adults with 46% of unvaccinated adults being married compared to 56% of vaccinated adults being married.
In terms of racial and ethnic differences, the share of unvaccinated non-Hispanic White adults was no different than the share of vaccinated non-Hispanic white adults.
However, non-Hispanic Black adults were narrowly more represented as unvaccinated with 13% unvaccianted compared to 11% vaccinated non-Hispanic Black adults.
There was a greater gap in unvaccinated vs. vaccinated non-Hispanic Asian participants. 6% of vaccinated participants were non-Hispanic Asian compared to 1% of unvaccinated participants being non-Hispanic Asian.
While most of the responses had to do with uncertainty about potential side effects or distrust of the vaccine, a small number of people said they are unvaccinated due to the vaccine being hard for them to get.
The Censes Bureau refers to the participants as the "hard-to-reach" population.
Among the who hard-to-reach, most were non-White. Additionally, 35% were married compared to 54% of all participants.
Most had lower levels of education on average and were more likely to be economically disadvantaged. About half of the hard-to-reach reported difficulty meeting expenses in the week prior to the survey.
Those among the hard-to-reach population were almost twice as likely to report either complete impairment or "a lot of difficulty" with seeing, hearing, remembering or navigating stairs.
The survey is set to continue into February of 2022.
