Rutgers Study: 20 Percent Of Americans Unlikely To Get Vaccine

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — A new national survey done by Rutgers and other universities found that 60 to 71 percent of those polled think the government should mandate coronavirus vaccination, depending on the circumstances.

However, it also found about one fifth of the population has no desire to get the vaccine.

The survey was conducted by Rutgers and other universities, including Harvard; the results were published July 30 .

Between June 9 and July 7, the schools polled 20,669 persons across all 50 states plus the District of Columbia.

In New Jersey, 72.7 percent of residents support requiring a COVID-19 vaccine; 73 percent support a vaccine to get on an airplane; 70.2 percent support making a vaccine mandatory in elementary and secondary schools; and 72.4 percent support a vaccine to return to college.

The majorities of respondents in nearly all U.S. states said they approve of the four types of mandates considered.

In states such as Arkansas, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota and Idaho, support for vaccine mandates was not as high. There, a majority of residents did not support making vaccines mandatory in schools.

Sixty-four percent of those polled between June 9 and July 7 supported government mandates, compared with 62 percent of those surveyed in April and May.

Republicans are the only group not supporting a universal mask mandate, according to the study, which found only 45 percent of those surveyed believed a mandate was appropriate.

Also, Rutgers found the partisan gap in support for requiring vaccines to fly on an airplane "remains extremely large," with Democrats 35 percentage points more supportive than Republicans — 87 to 52 percent.

Among ethnic groups polled, Asian Americans were the most supportive of vaccine mandates, with 75 percent in favor, and white Americans the least supportive at 59 percent.

Also, support for mandating vaccines for air travel was 13 percentage points higher among urban residents compared with their rural counterparts, 75 percent versus 62 percent, with suburban residents falling in between at 69 percent.

The same survey found almost 20 percent of Americans say it is unlikely they will get the COVID-19 vaccine.

It found that almost 15 percent of people eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine say they are “extremely unlikely” to get the shot, while another 4.5 percent say they are “somewhat” unlikely to get vaccinated.

“As the remaining unvaccinated population becomes increasingly difficult to reach, vaccination rates are slowing down," said co-author Katherine Ognyanova, an associate professor of communication at Rutgers. “Yet, the new and more infectious disease variants are causing a surge in cases. This may cost us more lives and delay the end of the pandemic beyond what we were hoping for.”

The entire survey can be read here.

The survey was done as part of the COVID States Project, a joint project involving Rutgers, Northeastern University, Harvard University and Harvard Medical School and Northwestern University. The consortium has released 58 reports and charted public opinion related to COVID-19 topics since April 2020. It is the largest ongoing national survey tracking people’s opinions and behavior during the pandemic.

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