Topline
While most Americans blame vaccine holdouts for surging coronavirus cases, rationed medicines and overwhelmed hospitals, few unvaccinated people feel any responsibility, according to new polling by the Kaiser Family Foundation, underscoring the tough barriers officials must overcome as they seemingly hold anyone and anything other than themselves responsible for the dire outbreak.
The unvaccinated do not view themselves as responsible for U.S. Covid surge, poll finds.
Key Facts
Nearly 8 in 10 (77%) vaccinated Americans blame the high number of Covid-19 cases on people refusing to get vaccinated, according to the poll conducted September 13-22 among 1,519 U.S. adults.
Vaccinated adults also pinpointed people not taking enough precautions like mask wearing and social distancing (73%), the infectiousness of the delta variant (67%), and local and state governments lifting restrictions too soon (59%) as key reasons for the rise in cases, the poll found.
Just 12% of unvaccinated adults believe people refusing the vaccine is a major factor behind the high case numbers, the poll found, with the majority (58%) thinking the surge is driven by vaccines being less effective at preventing the spread of Covid-19 than scientists initially thought.
Unvaccinated people even cited vaccine holdouts last among all reasons driving the high case numbers polled by Kaiser, including children who aren’t eligible for vaccination (15%), governments lifting restrictions too soon (27%), the infectiousness of the delta variant (35%), people not taking enough precautions (37%) and immigrants and tourists bringing Covid-19 into the country (40%).
Divergent beliefs in what is driving the wave of coronavirus highlight the wider differences in opinion between the vaccinated and unvaccinated, with a majority of holdouts thinking that breakthrough infections (66%) and the potential need for booster shots (71%) show the vaccines don’t work.
Just 11% of vaccinated people thought breakthrough cases indicate the vaccines aren’t working, Kaiser found, and 19% thought the same of booster shots.
Tangent
Throughout the pandemic, vaccination has been an intensely partisan issue. Consistently, Republicans have been less likely to accept the vaccine and more likely to question the public health measures put in place to end the pandemic. This latest Kaiser poll is no different: Republicans (32%) were the least likely to cite people refusing the vaccine as a major reason for high cases when compared to Democrats (87%) and Independents (54%) and the most likely to blame immigrants and tourists bringing Covid-19 into the country (55% of Republicans versus 21% of Democrats and 34% of Independents).
Surprising Fact
Despite 77% of vaccinated people holding the unvaccinated responsible for the rise in cases, just over half (51%) said they were angry with them. Unsurprisingly, only 3% of the unvaccinated said they were angry with people who hadn’t gotten a Covid-19 vaccine. As with other opinions on vaccination, the anger is partisan: 65% of Democrats said they were angry with the unvaccinated, while just 16% of Republicans felt the same. Instead, a majority of Republicans (59%) and the unvaccinated (56%) said they were angry with the federal government for the state of the pandemic, compared to 30% of the unvaccinated and 20% of Democrats.
Key Background
Safe and highly effective Covid-19 vaccines have been freely available to all adults, and many children, for months. While they cannot provide complete protection against Covid-19, they effectively prevent serious illness, hospitalization and death and slash the risks of developing long Covid. The vast majority of hospitalizations and nearly all deaths from Covid-19 are in unvaccinated people, who have cost the healthcare system at least $5.7 billion in the last three months alone. The huge surge in demand for what few medicines are licensed to treat Covid-19 in the U.S. has triggered nationwide shortages and rationing of scarce supplies, with some areas prioritizing scarce supplies for unvaccinated patients.
Further Reading
By The Numbers: Who’s Refusing Covid Vaccinations—And Why (Forbes)
How The Pandemic Now Ends (The Atlantic)
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