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. 2020 Sep 29;38(42):6500-6507.
doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2020.08.043. Epub 2020 Aug 20.

Acceptability of a COVID-19 vaccine among adults in the United States: How many people would get vaccinated?

Paul L Reiter  1 , Michael L Pennell  2 , Mira L Katz  2
Affiliations

Acceptability of a COVID-19 vaccine among adults in the United States: How many people would get vaccinated?

Paul L Reiter et al. Vaccine. .

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic in March 2020. Several prophylactic vaccines against COVID-19 are currently in development, yet little is known about people's acceptability of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Methods: We conducted an online survey of adults ages 18 and older in the United States (n = 2,006) in May 2020. Multivariable relative risk regression identified correlates of participants' willingness to get a COVID-19 vaccine (i.e., vaccine acceptability).

Results: Overall, 69% of participants were willing to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Participants were more likely to be willing to get vaccinated if they thought their healthcare provider would recommend vaccination (RR = 1.73, 95% CI: 1.49-2.02) or if they were moderate (RR = 1.09, 95% CI: 1.02-1.16) or liberal (RR = 1.14, 95% CI: 1.07-1.22) in their political leaning. Participants were also more likely to be willing to get vaccinated if they reported higher levels of perceived likelihood getting a COVID-19 infection in the future (RR = 1.05, 95% CI: 1.01-1.09), perceived severity of COVID-19 infection (RR = 1.08, 95% CI: 1.04-1.11), or perceived effectiveness of a COVID-19 vaccine (RR = 1.46, 95% CI: 1.40-1.52). Participants were less likely to be willing to get vaccinated if they were non-Latinx black (RR = 0.81, 95% CI: 0.74-0.90) or reported a higher level of perceived potential vaccine harms (RR = 0.95, 95% CI: 0.92-0.98).

Conclusions: Many adults are willing to get a COVID-19 vaccine, though acceptability should be monitored as vaccine development continues. Our findings can help guide future efforts to increase COVID-19 vaccine acceptability (and uptake if a vaccine becomes available).

Keywords: Adults; COVID-19; Coronavirus; Vaccine.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Factors that would matter in participants’ decisions about COVID-19 vaccination by vaccine willingness. Bars indicate standard errors. ‘*’ indicates a comparison with p < 0.05, based on chi-square tests with the Bonferroni adjustment to account for multiple testing.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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