Fox News Poll: 1 in 5 voters reject vaccine, concern about coronavirus drops

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As the coronavirus pandemic drags on into year two and U.S. eligibility for vaccines rises, a new Fox News poll finds one in five registered voters plan to skip the shot.

The survey, released Sunday, shows that while 7 in 10 voters have either already received a vaccine (58 percent) or plan to (13 percent), more than 1 in 5 aren’t scheduling their novel coronavirus inoculation (22 percent).

Those most likely to decline the jab include Republican women (43 percent), very conservatives (41 percent), white evangelicals (32 percent), whites without a college degree (28 percent), rural voters (26 percent), and Millennials (26 percent).

When asked why they don’t plan to get a shot, the most frequently cited concerns were that development was rushed and a desire for more data (28 percent).  Skepticism about the vaccine working (16 percent) came in second followed by indifference about coronavirus (10 percent), and worry about side effects and distrust of the government (9 percent each).

At Joe Biden’s first press conference as president March 25, he doubled his original goal of 100 million shots by his 100th day in office (April 29). The nation surpassed that goal on April 21 with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now recording about 220 million vaccinations.

Buoyed by good news on vaccinations and a drop in new COVID-19 cases, President Biden enjoys positive marks on coronavirus: 58 percent approving vs. 34 percent disapproving. That includes a quarter of Republicans approving (24 percent).

The campaign to get people vaccinated could also be responsible for the decline in concern about the coronavirus spreading throughout the United States (71 percent concerned vs. 27 percent not concerned). Last April, in the early months of the pandemic, concern hit a high of 94 percent.

Additionally, 8 in 10 believe coronavirus is at least somewhat under control (81 percent). That’s a 34-point increase since December when just 47 percent felt that way.

With vaccinations on the rise and summer around the corner, businesses are slowly returning to normal operations, but voters split over whether proof of either vaccination or a negative Covid test should be required: 41 percent think it’s okay to ask customers and employees to prove it, while 44 percent disagree (16 percent say it depends or are unsure).

Conducted April 18-21, 2021 under the joint direction of Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company (R), this Fox News Poll includes interviews with 1,002 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide who spoke with live interviewers on both landlines and cellphones. The total sample has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.