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Nearly 80% of Americans Now Say They’ve Had, or Will Get, COVID-19 Vaccine

The number of Americans who reported that they had received or planed to get a COVID-19 vaccine jumped up five percentages points from July to August this year. Find out what other views changed – including on mask mandates -- as the delta variant wreaked havoc, mainly in areas with low rates of vaccination.

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY – As pharmacists can testify, more Americans now are seeking COVID-19 vaccination than was the case during most of the summer.

According to a new poll, the number of Americans saying they have gotten or will get a COVID vaccine (79%) has jumped five percentage points from last month.

At the same time, according to results from the NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll, Americans indicating they will not get the shot has dropped from 24% to 19%. In addition, most fully vaccinated Americans (81%) say they will get a booster shot if made available.

“After months of what looked like a vaccination plateau, the number of Americans getting the shot has jumped," said Lee M. Miringoff, Director of the Marist Poll. “It’s also promising that most of those already vaccinated say they’ll get a booster when one is available to them.”

The poll, conducted Aug. 28, 2021, to Aug. 31, 2021, had 1,241 respondents. It asked, “If a vaccine for the coronavirus is made available to you, will you choose to be vaccinated or not? If you have already received the vaccine, please say so.”

The poll found that Republicans (37%) remain the most likely to say they will not get the vaccine, and that number didn’t change much from the previous month, when it was 39%. Only 5% of Democrats and 17% of independents said they would refuse the shot. Only 19% of respondents said they won’t get a booster shot or are unsure.

One of the biggest changes had to do with support for employer vaccine mandates. The poll found that half of Americans (50%) support employer requirements for vaccination, while 44% do not. In the Marist poll in July poll, 44% supported the mandates and 50% did not.

Employer vaccine mandates also illuminate the political split over COVID-19 prevention; 82% of Democrats support them, while just 19% of Republicans agreed. Among Independents, 45% support the mandates, and 47% do not.

In terms of requiring masking for students and staff at schools, 65% of Americans support it -- 91% of Democrats, 32% of Republicans, and 66% of independents. Even a majority (54%) of parents of school-aged children support mask mandates in schools, although 44% oppose the requirement.

In addition, most respondents, 56%, support a national mandate requiring indoor masking in public spaces (56%), including 86% of Democrats, 26% of Republicans, and 54% of independents.

Most Americans (53%) said they believe getting vaccinated is “everyone’s responsibility to protect the health of others,” but 43% called it only a “personal choice.”