COVID Vaccine Safety Is Top Concern For Unvaccinated Detroiters

DETROIT — Most Detroit residents who have not received the COVID-19 vaccine cited concerns about the safety of the vaccine as among their reason, according to new University of Michigan study.

According to the study, about half of adults living in Detroit are not yet fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and 78% percent of them reported that concerns about side effects were among the reasons they had not gotten vaccinated.

Among the unvaccinated in Detroit, only 10% said they placed high trust in the news media for this information, while on the other hand about one-third said they trusted their doctors a great deal for information on COVID-19, according to the survey.

"With COVID-19 cases rising again in Michigan and public health officials warning about a pandemic among the unvaccinated, these data highlight that trust, and not access, is the main factor deterring Detroiters from getting vaccinated at this stage,"Elisabeth Gerber, one of the faculty research leads for DMACS said.

"These findings also illustrate that more personal appeals to get vaccinated are more likely to be persuasive than mass appeals through news media," she added.

Live in Detroit? Click here to subscribe to our free breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox and mobile devices. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and download our free mobile app on Android or iPhone.

But while trust remains a central issue in vaccinating Detroit residents, the survey does show conquering vaccine hesitancy is achievable.

According to the survey, 1 in 3 residents (34%) who reported being unlikely to get vaccinated between January and March 2021 have since received at least one dose of the vaccine.

"Many residents who told us in previous waves that they were unlikely to be vaccinated have in fact gotten a vaccine shot, suggesting that there is a persuadable population," Jeffrey Morenoff, one of the faculty research leads for DMACS said.

"We also find very few residents who start but don’t complete their vaccine course, which means if we can get people in the pipeline we can keep building immunity in our communities," he added.

The survey registered 1,898 residents from June 2 through July 9 and the responses were weighed to match Detroit’s population demographics, the University of Michigan said in the survey.