Despite the rollout of multiple COVID-19 vaccines, reaching herd immunity still has roadblocks to overcome, a recent poll indicates approximately 25% of people in the U.S. would still outright refuse a vaccine for the coronavirus.
The NPR/Marist poll showed that an additional 5% of people in the U.S. consider themselves to be undecided about whether they would be willing to get vaccinated, according to coverage by Hawaii Public Radio. Ali Mokdad, a professor of Health Metrics Sciences at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) and Chief Strategy Officer for Population Health at the University of Washington, expressed concern over the trend.
"Vaccine hesitancy is a big problem for all of us," Mokdad told Public Radio.
Mokdad said the nation could soon face a situation where, instead of there being more demand for COVID-19 vaccines than supply, the supply could soon begin to pile up against a lack of demand. He told Public Radio that the nation could have more vaccine doses than people willing to get vaccinated as soon as May.
However, despite the high number of people still saying they would refuse a vaccine, that number has dropped since August of last year when more than 30% of those polled said they would refuse a vaccine. And resistance to vaccination appears to be declining as well.