MONDAY, April 19, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Half of all Americans aged 18 years or older have now gotten at least one shot in the arm of a COVID-19 vaccine, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Sunday.
The agency said that almost 130 million people — 50.4 percent of the U.S. adult population — have received at least one dose of vaccine, while almost 84 million adults, or nearly a third (32.5 percent), are fully vaccinated.
In the United States, efforts to vaccinate are now beginning to shift from getting shots into the arms of those who were eager for immunization to trying to convince the many who are still hesitant.
Politics and geography remain key factors in vaccine acceptance. According to a poll conducted in late March by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs, 36 percent of Republicans said they will probably or definitely not get vaccinated versus 12 percent of Democrats. And while less than one-quarter of people living in cities say they are hesitant about getting a shot, that number rises to one-third of Americans living in rural areas, polling revealed.
Nevertheless, overall acceptance of the vaccines is on the rise. According to the AP-NORC poll conducted in January, 67 percent of Americans said they would be willing to get a COVID-19 vaccine, but that number has risen to 75 percent in the latest AP-NORC poll.
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