24 percent of New Yorkers unlikely to get COVID-19 vaccine: poll

Nearly 1 in 4 New York state residents said they would likely not get a COVID-19 vaccine if one were approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), according to a new poll.

The poll, released Tuesday by the Siena College Research Institute, found that 24 percent of survey respondents in New York state said they would “probably not” or “definitely not” get a vaccine if it were approved by FDA officials.

Sixty-nine percent of state residents polled said they would “definitely” or “probably” get the vaccine, and 7 percent said they did not know or had no opinion.

Both Republicans and Democrats surveyed agreed that they would get a vaccine approved by the FDA. Seventy-four percent of Democrats agreed with the statement, as did 65 percent of Republicans polled. 

Sixty-four percent of independents polled said they would take the vaccine.

“A strong majority of New Yorkers of every stripe – regardless of party, region, race, age, religion, gender, or even who they supported in the presidential election – say they will definitely or at least probably get a COVID19 vaccine if it’s approved by the FDA,” Steven Greenberg, Siena College pollster, said in a Tuesday statement.

Three drugmakers have said in recent weeks that the vaccines they are developing have been effective in late-stage drug trials. Pfizer and its German partner company BioNtech applied for an FDA emergency authorization for their COVID-19 vaccination last week.

Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has predicted that vaccines could begin distribution in December and early next year among some of the nation’s most vulnerable populations.

The Siena poll was conducted from Nov. 15–18 among 803 New York state registered voters. It has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.