Growing numbers of Americans are buying into #misinformation about COVID-19 #vaccines, according to a new national survey, with 🆘more than one in five believing it's safer to get the virus than to get a shot.
Belief in misconceptions is stoking #vaccine #hesitancy with the nation facing a
💥summer surge of infections,
💥more COVID-related #hospitalizations, and
💥 updated shots now reaching pharmacy shelves.
The big picture:
The findings from the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center are further evidence of how
⚠️intense backlash to the government's at times muddled COVID response
🔥eroded trust in public health, jeopardizing preparedness efforts to address future crises.
The proliferation of vaccine #misinformation on social media has also outpaced efforts to counter it, Columbia University researchers found earlier this year.
What they found:
🔥28% of respondents to Annenberg's survey incorrectly believe that COVID-19 vaccines have been responsible for thousands of deaths,
-- up from 22% in June 2021.
The percentage who know this is false declined to 55% from 66%.
22% believe the false idea that it's safer to get a COVID infection than to get the vaccine, up from 10% in April 2021, months after the shots were rolled out.
The percent of those incorrectly believing that the COVID-19 vaccine changes people's DNA nearly doubled to 15% from 8% in April 2021.
⭐️Two-thirds of Americans still say the benefits of taking COVID-19 vaccines outweigh the risks.
❌But that's a lower percentage than those who said the same for the mpox vaccine (70%), RSV shots for adults 60 and older (74% when asked in October 2023), and the childhood measles, mumps, rubella vaccine (89% in August 2023).
Just under half of those surveyed said they'd likely take a combined mRNA vaccine to protect against flu, RSV, and COVID-19 if one were offered and the Centers for Disease Control recommended it.
👉27% say they would be "not at all likely" to take such a single-shot vaccine.
Between the lines:
Previous polling has shown sizable numbers of Americans who believe COVID vaccine misinformation know they're at odds with scientists and medical experts -- 🆘suggesting that educating people on the science behind vaccines won't change many minds.
"A belief that persists across waves of a survey is probably less subject to change than a recently acquired one," said Annenberg Center director Kathleen Hall Jamieson.
⚠️The current wave also isn't heightening concern about the virus itself, the survey found.
🔥Only one in five said they're somewhat or very worried that they or someone in their family will contract COVID, down from 25% in February and 35% in October 2023.
The survey of 1,496 adults was conducted July 11-18 and has a margin of sampling error ± 3.6% at the 95% confidence level.
https://www.axios.com/2024/08/29/more-americans-embrace-vaccine-misinformation
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