A plurality of voters say the coronavirus vaccine rollout has been slower than expected, a new Hill-HarrisX poll finds.
Forty percent of registered voters in the Jan. 8-11 survey said the vaccine distribution process has been slower than they expected.
Thirty-two percent of respondents said it has been faster than expected, while 28 percent said it’s been about the speed they expected.
Almost half of Democratic voters, 47 percent, said they think the vaccine rollout has been slower than expected along with 39 percent of independent voters.
By contrast, a plurality of Republican respondents said the vaccine distribution process thus far has been faster than expected, at 35 percent.
The survey was conducted prior to President Biden being sworn into office.
A recent Hill-HarrisX poll found 60 percent of voters are confident in President Biden’s ability to achieve rapid distribution of the vaccine, including 90 percent of Democrats, 59 percent of independents and 32 percent of Republicans.
Biden and his administration have set a goal of getting 100 million shots administered within his first 100 days of office, and has taken measures during his first week of office to speed up the distribution process.
According to data from the Centers of Disease Control, upwards of 17 million doses of the vaccine have been administered so far, but this number is far from the 70-85 percent of the population experts say need to receive the vaccine in order to obtain herd immunity.
Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert said Thursday that if the U.S. reaches this goal in the coming months, the country can return to a degree or normalcy.
The Hill-HarrisX poll was conducted online among 2,854 registered voters. It has a margin of error of 1.8 percentage points.
—Gabriela Schulte
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