Ahead of a likely peak in the winter, most Americans will not get the updated COVID-19 vaccine, according to a new Pew Research Center survey conducted in October.
Less than a quarter of Americans, 24%, said they will get the updated vaccine while 15% told Pew they have already received one, pollsters said in a new report.
The divide on vaccinations falls largely along political party lines, with 39% of Democrats saying they will get vaccinated and 23% saying they already have the new vaccine.
Among Republicans, 81% said they probably won't get the booster, 11% said they will get the shot, and 7% said they already got one.
Looking at the ages of the party faithful, 84% of Republicans between 18 and 29 years old said they probably won't get vaccinated.
Between the 30 to 49 and 50 to 64 age brackets, 85% said they also won't get vaccinated. Among those 65 and older, 70% said they probably won't get boosted.
Just under half of Democrats between the ages of 18 to 29 and 30 to 49 said they probably won't get vaccinated, while 16% of those 65 and older said they won't get another shot.
In contrast to the 15% of Republicans 65 and older who said they will get or have received the updated COVID shot, 42% of Democrats in that age range said they will probably get it or have received it.
A clear majority of white (62%) and Hispanic (58%) adults said they probably won't get a new shot. Half of Asian adults and 49% of Black adults told pollsters they will not get vaccinated.
Most Americans had two prominent reasons against getting the new COVID shot.
Around 60% of adults don't want the new shot either because they think they don't need it or they are concerned about side effects. Around 20% of adults saw these concerns as a minor reason.
Just over a quarter of Americans said they won't get the updated COVID shot because they generally don't get vaccinated. In contrast, 54% said this was not a reason for their decision not to get the booster.
The survey was conducted among a panel of randomly selected American adults, consisting of 9,593 panelists who were surveyed among 10,612, Pew stated.
The cumulative response rate accounting for no responses is 3%. The margin of error for the full sample is plus or minus 1.3%.
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As of Nov. 9, 3.6% of Americans are testing positive for COVID-19 four years after the pandemic began, according to the CDC's COVID Data Tracker.
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