About a quarter of Americans who said in January they would definitely not get a Covid-19 vaccine—or do so only if required—have since received at least one shot of a vaccine, according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) survey.

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Methodology

From January 14 to 18, KFF surveyed Americans to understand their perspectives on Covid-19 vaccines. For its latest survey, the organization followed up with those respondents from June 15 to 23 and again on July 2.

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According to KFF, the survey polled a nationally representative sample of 878 panelists for the follow-up questionnaire. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus four percentage points.

Where the vaccine-hesitant stand

In its latest survey, KFF found that 76% of those who said they would definitely not get a Covid-19 vaccine, or do so only if required, have not yet been vaccinated—but 24% have since received at least one shot of a vaccine. Meanwhile, 54% of those who said in January that they wanted to wait and see before getting a vaccine have since received at least one shot of a vaccine.

Of the vaccine-hesitant who have since received at least one shot, just over half said they learned or heard something that persuaded them to get vaccinated, while just over a third said someone talked to them and persuaded them to get vaccinated—usually a family member or their own doctor.

For instance, one respondent, a 28-year-old male who said in January that he would "definitely not" get vaccinated, said he decided to do so because his "[f]riends and family talked me into it, as did [his] place of employment."

Similarly, a 28-year-old woman who in January said she would "wait and see," said she got it because she is breastfeeding her infant, and her providers told her "it's actually good to get vaccinated while breastfeeding because the babies will get antibodies also."

The top two reasons cited for not getting the vaccine were concern about side effects (21%) concern that the vaccines are too new and have not been tested enough (16%). 

Meanwhile, a quarter of the unvaccinated said they are less motivated now than they were six months ago to get a vaccine, including 28% of those who said in January that they wanted to wait and see.

(Kirzinger et. al., KFF Covid-19 Vaccine Monitor, 7/13).