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A lot has happened in the past month that may have convinced Americans hesitant to receive the vaccine: More than 1,000 Americans die every day, the United States Food and Drug Administration has fully endorsed one of the COVID-19 vaccines, and Republicans have been more adamant that everyone – even their supporters – should get vaccinated.
But the effect has been mixed. Every month for the past four months, Morning Consult has asked Americans whether they have received the vaccine and, if not, whether they plan to do so. The most recent results show a noticeable drop in the number of Americans hesitant to get the vaccine – those who say they don’t plan to get the vaccine or don’t know if they will ever get it – in some hard-hit states , while others barely budged even as COVID-19 cases rose and prominent Republicans promoted the vaccine during the same time frame the poll was conducted (July 24 to 23 August). Crowded intensive care units and Ron DeSantis’ speeches are not always enough to influence people who reject the vaccine.
Take Florida, where new cases of COVID-19 began to climb in early July. Now, the average number of deaths per day in the state is higher than at any other time in the ongoing pandemic. The day before Morning Consult’s last round of voting began, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis publicly promoted the vaccines, claiming they saved lives and had defended himself against pushbacks from Republican anti-vaccinees who believed they were he was doing too much to brag about the vaccine. Vaccination rates in the state have climbed during this period: from early July to early August, the number of doses given daily increased by 50%, although it remains well below the peak in April. But according to the Morning Consult survey, from July to August, the percentage of Floridians who were unsure whether they wanted to receive the vaccine fell only 0.6 percentage point, less than the margin of error of 1% of the poll. The number of vaccine refusals in the survey fell by 1.2 percentage points.
In South Carolina, July and August also saw a cascade of new cases that rivaled the state’s peak in January. Some state Republicans – but not all – have emphasized immunization. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has been promoting the vaccine since he received his first dose last year, doubling his efforts after testing positive for a breakthrough case in August. But vaccination rates have increased only modestly here, from a seven-day moving average of about 3,000 doses per day in early July to 5,206 in early August. And like other southern states, South Carolina barely saw a change in residents reluctant to vaccinate between the July and August polls. The percentage of Southern Carolinians who said they did not intend to get the vaccine rose from 22.9% to 21.6%, while those who were unsure remained essentially unchanged at 12.6%.
Of course, not all states with the highest COVID-19 rates are fully managed by the GOP. In Kentucky, where Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, has promoted vaccines and the wearing of masks, there has been virtually no change in uncertainty and rejection rates over the past month despite the increased immunization rates in some of the state’s previously lagging counties. . In fact, from July to August, the number of vaccine refusals in the state essentially stayed the same. And roughly the same number of people in the state aren’t sure if they want the vaccine.
On the other hand, some states have seen a more marked change, although significant pockets of resistance remain. Mississippi, which has one of the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates in the country, saw a record spate of new cases in August. Some Republicans here too have started to publicly tout the vaccine in recent weeks, such as State Senator Jeremy England. England received its first dose of the vaccine in August and posted several long social media posts promoting the vaccine, writing that “The verdict is in. The vaccine works. Vaccination rates increased slightly in July and have remained stable since. Mississippi has also seen a noticeable drop in the number of people who say they refuse to be vaccinated: 30% of Mississippi people said they did not plan to be vaccinated in the July poll, while 26% said they did. in the most recent poll. But that 4 percentage point drop still means more than a quarter of the population doesn’t want to receive the jab. Meanwhile, the number of uncertain Mississippians fell less than 1 percentage point last month. Republican state governor Tate Reeves said on Saturday that residents of his state were “less afraid” of the virus because they believed in “eternal life.”
Louisiana also has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country and saw an increase in day-long hospitalizations in July. This month, Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards said the increase in cases and hospitalizations in the state was “frightening” and repeatedly urged residents to get vaccinated. On top of that, Louisiana and House Minority Whip representative Steve Scalise said he had “great confidence” in the vaccine – four days after receiving the vaccine himself. Since then, however, there has only been a “little bump” in vaccines. Vaccination hesitation and refusal rates fell by a few percentage points, however: the number of people who said they would not get vaccinated fell by 4.3 percentage points over the past month, while the number of people who say they don’t know if they want the jab drop by 0.6 percentage point. Conditions in the state may worsen after Hurricane Ida swept through Louisiana over the weekend. Edwards told The Associated Press on Sunday that more than 2,400 COVID-19 patients were in hospitals in Louisiana, many of whom are struggling with power outages and infrastructure damage after the storm.
All of this shows again how getting vaccinated has become less of a public health issue than an identity and political issue – if statements of support for immunization among political heavyweights in either party do. move the needle at all, they do so inconsistently. It seems there is a certain bedrock of anti-vaccine Americans for whom no new cases or political statements are convincing, and the rest of the public is grappling with the consequences.
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