Majority of Americans now say they would get a COVID-19 vaccine, new poll says

A majority of Americans now would choose to get vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the latest Gallup poll.

There was an increase in the willingness to get a COVID-19 vaccine in the Gallup Panel survey conducted Oct. 19-Nov. 1, with 58% saying they would get vaccinated compared with 50% who said the same thing in September. The poll is based on responses from 2,985 adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The survey comes as Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna announced the effectiveness of their coronavirus vaccines. Pfizer said early results showed its vaccine is more than 90% effective, while Moderna said Monday that its vaccine’s efficacy is 94.5%, The New York Times reported.

The willingness to get a vaccine is also split along party lines:

• 69% of Democrats said they would get vaccinated
• 49% of Republicans and independents said the same

Democrats are more likely than Republicans and independents to say they’d get a vaccine, and Democrats have also shown the biggest increase in willingness. In the Gallup poll conducted Sept. 14-17, 53% of Democrats said they would get vaccinated.

The number of people who said they wouldn’t get a vaccine has gone down from 50% in September to 42%.

Men, younger people aged 18 to 44, white adults and people with a college degree were more likely to say they’d get a vaccine. Americans aged 45 to 64 had an uptick in willingness, with 49% of the age group now saying they would get one compared with 36% in September.

More than 11 million coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the U.S. and more than 248,000 people have died as of Nov. 17, according to Johns Hopkins University.