The number of Americans who say they won't get a COVID shot hasn't budged in a year

The number of Americans who say they won't get a COVID shot hasn't budged in a year Politics, religion, distrust and disinformation all play a role. "I've realized that there's no convincing somebody once they have their mind made up," says a social worker in Beaumont, Texas. NPR.org

...

About 66% of Americans are fully vaccinated. But as the United States approaches a million deaths from COVID-19, the virus mortality rate is being driven mainly by people who are not vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nationally, about one in six Americans say they "definitely will not get the vaccine," according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

"One thing that has been really consistent in all of our surveys is the size of the group that says they're definitely not getting vaccinated," says Liz Hamel, vice president and director of public policy and survey research at KFF. "That hasn't shifted in over a year."

"The ones that have been most likely to say they're definitely not going to get the vaccine have been Republicans and people living in rural areas, as well as white evangelical Christians," she says.

...

Hansen, a 60-year-old social worker who's done this work for nearly half his life, says his clients are often older people who require assistance with their daily living. His role is to inform them of the government benefits and services they can access, including the free vaccine.

"This recalcitrance towards getting the vaccine flies in the face of the fact that they had family members die of COVID," he says. "They openly say, 'Yes, my brother died of COVID' or 'My mom died of COVID,' And they still won't get the vaccine knowing full well that this is a possibility for them." ...