ATLANTA — Only 58 percent of Americans said they would be willing to get a coronavirus vaccine, according to a new STAT/Harris poll, but scientists say at least 70 percent of the population in the states would have to get it for herd immunity to take over.
With the promising news that the two vaccine candidates in development are more than 90 percent effective, we look to see how that will affect people's decision to get the immunization.
The big thing for a lot of people is that this is so new - scientists usually take years to develop a vaccine, but this process was accelerated because of the global pandemic.
Now that the vaccine looks so effective and promising, scientists know they have their work cut out for them.
"The effort that has been poured in to this is really unfathomable. No steps have been skipped," said Emory Dr. Colleen Kelley.
She headed up the clinical trial for the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in Atlanta, and knows even though the science looks promising, people will have to believe it to get the vaccine.
"Now we have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of work to do to convince people that they should get it," said Dr. Kelley.
Dr. Austin Baldwin studies health behaviors at SMU and says people will have to buy in to this vaccine working.
"To the extent that people believe COVID is a serious health threat, and condition, and that the vaccine is perceived to be an effective way to deal with that threat are going to be things that are critical in people deciding to get vaccinated," said Dr. Baxter.
Instead of telling people they need to get vaccinated, Dr. Baxter says it's more effective to ask questions about the pandemic.
• What will happen if I get COVID?
• How will I benefit from a COVID-19 vaccine?
• How will my family benefit if I get the vaccine?
• How will the public benefit if I get the vaccine?
"One of the benefits of getting the vaccine and getting it at rates that will give us herd immunity is the promise that we will be able to get back to life as normal," said Dr. Baxter.
He suspects getting back to the way things were will motivate people to get the vaccine.
"This week we could not gather with friends, but really, that could happen soon with the dramatic effect our vaccines are showing in the past week," said Dr. Kelley.
Even though getting back to normal may be the motivating factor for people getting the vaccine, it will be a while before enough people even have access to it to create herd immunity - healthcare workers will get it first - then at risk populations - with the general public getting access to it sometime in 2021.