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Skepticism about the COVID-19 vaccine has fallen steadily in California as inoculations increase. But resistance remains particularly high in one group: the Republicans.
In a poll released Tuesday night by the Public Policy Institute in California, 26% of registered Republicans said they definitely would not get vaccinated, and 13% said they probably wouldn’t. The reluctance rate of 39% is the highest of any group surveyed.
The survey of 1,706 adult residents reflects similar results in other recent US polls and challenges the claim that the highest rates of vaccine skepticism are among black and Latino residents. The data also establishes another potential hurdle on California’s already difficult path to herd immunity through vaccination.
About 29% of black Californians said they would likely or permanently refuse the vaccine, up from 55% in January. Among Latinos, 22% are hesitant, a rate that has remained unchanged over the past two months.
The rate of Republicans who said they would not get vaccinated has declined only slightly since January, from four percentage points to 43%, pollsters said.
Republicans were also the group least likely to worry about being hospitalized for COVID-19, with 53% of those polled saying they were not at all concerned and 24% saying they were not too worried.
About 33% of Republicans said they had received at least one shot before, compared with 42% of Democrats and 35% of people with no party preference.
The share of Democrats who say they likely or definitely won’t be vaccinated also fell four points to 10%.
Riverside and San Bernardino counties had the highest rates of vaccine skepticism, overtaking Los Angeles, the Central Valley, the Bay Area and Orange and San Diego counties, according to the PPIC survey. Almost 3 in 10 Inland Empire residents said they probably would not or definitely not be vaccinated.
California’s results mirror the results of two national polls also released this week.
A poll released Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation found the highest rates of vaccine refusal were among Republicans (29%) and white evangelical Christians (28%). About one in five rural residents also said they definitely would not get the vaccine.
A Gallup survey also released on Tuesday found that Republican respondents were the least likely to be or plan to be vaccinated, at 54%.
Of those who did not plan to accept a dose of the vaccine if offered, 23% said they wanted to wait to confirm the vaccine is safe. Another 20% said they didn’t think the health effects of the disease would be serious, 15% said they didn’t trust vaccines in general, and 10% said they already had had COVID-19.
The PPIC survey was conducted on cell phones and landlines in English and Spanish between March 14 and 23.
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