Majority of Midwesterners say they’ll skip the COVID booster this year, poll finds
The majority of residents in 22 central states say they are planning on skipping the updated COVID-19 booster shot this fall, a new poll says.
The poll, conducted by Emerson College Polling in association with the City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, surveyed Americans in 12 “traditional Midwestern” states as well as 10 states on the border of the region about a variety of health and policy topics.
Thousands of Americans responded to the survey in early and mid-October, and the results were published Dec. 5.
“We found that American residents split down the middle, 51% to 49%, about getting the new COVID-19 shot, but likely acceptance dropped to 43% in our nation’s Heartland,” CUNY SPH lecturer Scott C. Ratzan said in a news release.
The new boosters were approved by the Food and Drug Administration in September and recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for everyone 6 months and older.
Despite their recommendation, millions of Americans have yet to get the vaccine, Reuters reports.
“Respondents in Minnesota, Colorado, Iowa, and Illinois align more closely with the national perception on COVID-19 boosters. Residents there are split evenly on whether they will get them,” Ratzan said, “but residents elsewhere in the Heartland are less supportive and their attitude towards the vaccine tracks closely with how they rate the quality of the government health information they receive.”
States with the lowest percentage of residents planning to get the vaccine also rated the quality of health information from the government the lowest.
More than half of the residents of Arkansas, where only 39.7% of residents said they were planning to get the vaccine, gave the quality of health information a “poor” or “fair” rating, poll data showed.
Wyoming, where 37% of respondents gave government health information a “poor” rating, had the lowest number of residents planning to get the updated booster, just 26%, the poll showed.
The researchers said the poll suggests Americans are more likely to get the COVID-19 booster shot this year if they believe the health information they are receiving from the government is better.
“These findings should be a wake-up call to health communicators, as we can no longer rely on mandates and must engage people in real conversations to encourage them to vaccinate themselves and their families,” CUNY SPH senior scholar Kenneth H. Rabin said in the release.
This story was originally published December 6, 2023 at 6:01 PM with the headline "Majority of Midwesterners say they’ll skip the COVID booster this year, poll finds."
