More Than Half of U.S. Voters Say They Plan to Get New COVID-19 Boosters This Year
Key Takeaways
57% of U.S. registered voters said they plan to get an updated COVID-19 booster shot sometime this year, compared with 43% who said they do not plan to.
The survey found similar results among voters who said whether they plan for their children to get the latest shots, though shares were slightly down for most groups surveyed.
Democrats were much more likely to say they plan for themselves and their children to get boosted this year than either Republicans or independents.
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New COVID-19 vaccine boosters will soon be available for most Americans as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations once again tick up, though overall levels are still well below previous waves.
As the fourth year of the COVID-19 pandemic nears its end, a familiar question remains ahead of what could be another fall and winter wave: How many people will actually get vaccinated? The answer may determine how severe any potential surges may be.
A new Morning Consult and Politico survey found that 57% of U.S. registered voters said they plan to get a new COVID-19 booster sometime this year, including 37% who said they “definitely” plan to receive it. Meanwhile, 43% of voters said they would not get a new booster vaccine, with 27% saying they “definitely” do not plan to get one.
As we’ve now seen for the past several years, there is a stark partisan divide around COVID-19 vaccines: Democrats were much more likely to say they plan to get the new boosters than Republicans and independents.
More Than Half of Voters Say They Plan to Get New COVID-19 Boosters This Year
The Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved Pfizer’s and Moderna’s new COVID-19 booster vaccines, which were developed to target more recent strains of the virus. On the following day, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that anyone 6 months or older get a new booster.
The recommendations for the new shots also mean that people who have never been vaccinated against COVID-19 can get the latest versions without receiving the two-shot primary series. The simplified approach mirrors the United States’ strategy used for influenza vaccines and is, in part, intended to entice people who are unvaccinated against COVID-19 to get vaccinated.
However, the new strategy is unlikely to sway unvaccinated people, who appear to be dug into their stance. In Morning Consult and Politico’s latest survey, just 9% of unvaccinated voters said they plan to get a new booster.
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Similar shares of voters said their children would get COVID-19 boosters this year
There were similar results for voters who said whether or not they plan for their children to get the latest boosters, but shares were down a bit for nearly every group. Among all voters, 53% said they plan for their children to get boosted sometime this year, compared with 47% who said the opposite.
Voters Are Roughly Split on Whether Their Children Will Get New COVID-19 Boosters
There was also a similar partisan divide, with Democrats still more likely to say they plan for their children to get the new booster shots than Republicans or independents. Interestingly, 42% of Republicans said they plan for their children to get boosted this year, which is 3 percentage points higher than the share who said they plan to get one for themselves.
The federal government’s and drugmakers’ strategies for rolling out the vaccines and messaging campaigns could be crucial to get vaccination rates up, as there is still a question about whether people who say they plan to get vaccinated actually do. The shares of people who said they plan to get boosters in past Morning Consult surveys have been quite lower than vaccination rates tracked by the CDC.
Ricky Zipp previously worked at Morning Consult as a health care analyst on the Industry Intelligence team.
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