Acceptability of a COVID-19 vaccine among adults in the United States: How many people would get vaccinated?
Introduction
The World Health Organization declared that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can be characterized as a pandemic on March 11, 2020 [1]. COVID-19 is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), with cases ranging from individuals who are asymptomatic to those who experience severe respiratory distress, pneumonia, and death [2]. As of August 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused more than 20 million cases and 700,000 deaths worldwide [1]. The United States (US) has experienced the largest burden of COVID-19 of any country up to this point, with more than five million cases and 160,000 deaths thus far [1].
Protective behaviors are key to managing pandemics [3], and vaccination could be a key protective behavior for COVID-19. Several prophylactic vaccines against COVID-19 are currently in development across multiple countries [4], [5]. Estimated timelines for licensure of a COVID-19 vaccine differ, though there is some speculation that licensure could occur in 2021 [6]. With vaccine development underway, it becomes important to start examining people’s acceptability of a COVID-19 vaccine. During the 2009 influenza A (H1N1) pandemic, early estimates of vaccine acceptability suggested that about 50%-64% of adults in the US intended to get the 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine [7], [8], [9]. However, little is currently known about people’s acceptability of a COVID-19 vaccine or factors that affect acceptability. Such information is useful for generating informed projections of what vaccine uptake might be in the future and also identifying strategies for improving acceptability (and uptake following vaccine availability). The current study examined acceptability of a COVID-19 vaccine among a national sample of adults in the US.
Section snippets
Study design
We conducted a cross-sectional survey study about COVID-19 with adults in the US in May 2020 (about two months after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic1). Eligibility criteria included being age 18 or older and currently living in the US. We recruited all participants from an online survey panel accessed through a survey company, SSRS (Glen Mills, PA). The online panel is a national opt-in panel, and its members are invited to complete self-administered online surveys on a regular basis in
Participant Characteristics
Most participants were non-Latinx white (67%), had at least some college education (65%), and lived in an urban county (86%). Just over half of participants were female (56%), married/in a civil union or living with a partner (51%), and reported an annual household income of less than $50,000 (53%) (Table 1). The age distribution of participants included 16% who were ages 18–29, 33% who were ages 30–49, 27% who were ages 50–64, and 25% who were ages 65 and older. About 25% of participants
Discussion
We found that nearly 70% of adults in the US would be willing to get a COVID-19 vaccine if one becomes available. This is similar to data recently made available online, where 59%-75% of US adults indicated a willingness to get vaccinated [18], [19]. Our finding represents one of the first estimates of acceptability of a COVID-19 vaccine in the US and can be used to guide projections of future vaccine uptake. Moving forward, it will be important to monitor temporal changes in acceptability as
Conclusions
If a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available, it will be a key public health strategy for reducing existing disparities and the overall disease burden due to COVID-19. Our study provides early insight into the acceptability of a COVID-19 vaccine, with results indicating that many adults in the US would be willing to get vaccinated if a vaccine becomes available. As the vaccine development process continues, it will be important to monitor changes in people’s vaccine acceptability. Our results
Funding
Supported by Award Number Grant UL1TR002733 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences or the National Institutes of Health.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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