Americans less confident they can protect themselves from COVID-19 in public: Gallup

Americans are less confident they can protect themselves against COVID-19 as the delta variant surges worldwide, according to a Gallup poll released Tuesday. 

At the end of July, 38 percent of surveyed Americans said they were “very confident” they could protect themselves, a drop from the 51 percent who said the same in May. That number stayed relatively flat at 50 percent in June, Gallup noted.

While more than a third say they are very confident they can protect themselves against the virus, another 52 percent say they are “somewhat confident” they can protect themselves, while 10 percent are “not too” or “not at all confident.”

Nearly two-thirds of Americans in the survey indicated they are worried about the rapid spread of COVID-19 variants, including 31 percent who are “very worried” and 33 percent who are “moderately worried.”

However, the concern about the spread among vaccinated and soon-to-be vaccinated adults is significantly higher than among those who are unvaccinated.

Of those surveyed, 78 percent of fully vaccinated adults and 77 percent of those planning to get vaccinated said they were “very” or “moderately worried.” By comparison, 81 percent of unvaccinated adults said they are “not too worried” or “not worried at all” about the spread of the variants. Only 19 percent of that group said they are “very” or “somewhat worried.”

Americans are also concerned about the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine against variants, with 29 percent of Americans saying they are “not too” or “not at all” confident about the vaccine. Only 14 percent of adults are “very confident” in the vaccine, while 57 percent are “somewhat confident.” 

Similar to the concern over the spread of the virus, the survey showed vaccinated Americans to be more confident in the vaccine than those unvaccinated. Eighty-seven percent of vaccinated adults said they “very” or “somewhat confident” that the vaccine can protect against variants. In comparison, 80 percent of unvaccinated adults said they were “not too” or “not at all confident” in the vaccine effectiveness, according to Gallup.

The survey of 3,475 adults was conducted July 19-26 via web surveys. The margin of sampling error is 2 percentage points.