COVID-19 Vaccine Intentions

With Pfizer’s recent announcement that a highly effective vaccine may be available early next year, understanding people’s plans for getting a coronavirus vaccine is critical as roll-out begins. In the CHASING COVID Cohort follow-up surveys conducted in September and October, 2020, we asked the question: “If a coronavirus vaccine became available, would you a) Immediately get the vaccine, b) Delay getting the vaccine, or c) Never get the vaccine.”

Among 4,720 adults in the CHASING COVID Cohort study who participated in both follow-up surveys, 20% changed their vaccine intention responses from “Immediately get the vaccine” in September to “Delay getting the vaccine” in October.

Those whose response changed from “Immediately get the vaccine” to “Delay getting the vaccine” were statistically significantly more likely to be

  • Non-Hispanic White
  • College graduates, and
  • Strongly disagree with the statement that the “federal government (White House) is prioritizing citizen safety.”

No statistically significant differences in reported plans for getting a coronavirus vaccine from September to October were found by: gender, age, or geographic region, or depending on whether the participant was a healthcare worker, a healthcare worker seeing COVID patients, an essential worker, at high risk for severe COVID-19, diagnosed or seropositive for COVID-19, or think they had COVID-19.