Our new book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics. Among other things, it discusses the politics of COVID.
As reported previously, while majorities across all demographic groups have received a COVID-19 vaccine, there are still disproportionate shares of certain groups that remain unvaccinated. A recent KFF analysis found partisanship is now the strongest self-identifying predictor of being unvaccinated and a quarter of Republicans (26%) continue to say they will “definitely not” get a COVID-19 vaccine, similar to the shares of uninsured adults and White Evangelical Christians who say the same. There are also gaps in vaccine uptake between college graduates and those without a college degree (83% vs. 68%) and age groups, with 89% of adults 65 and older reporting receiving a COVID-19 vaccine compared to 67% of adults 18-29 years old. At least two-thirds of Hispanic adults, Black adults, and White adults report receiving a vaccine....
Similar to the role that partisanship has played in initial COVID-19 vaccines, the survey finds the share of fully vaccinated Democrats (32%) reporting receiving a booster dose outpaces both independents (21%) and Republicans (18%). Democrats also are more likely than independents or Republicans to report they will “definitely” get a booster once eligible, 43% compared to 32% and 32%, respectively. Three in ten (31%) fully vaccinated Republicans say they will definitely not or probably not get a booster if the FDA and CDC recommend it for people like them, compared to 38% last month.
As with vaccination attitudes among adults, parents’ intentions for vaccinating their children diverge largely along partisan lines. Among parents of 12-17 year-olds, eight in ten Democrats say their teenager has already gotten at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, compared to about half of independents and just a quarter of Republicans. Indeed, half of Republican parents say they will “definitely not” get their 12-17 year-old vaccinated.
A similar pattern is seen among parents of younger children, with about half of Democrats saying their 5-11 year-old is already vaccinated or will be right away, compared to three in ten independents and about one in ten Republicans. Again, about half of Republican parents say they will “definitely not” vaccinate their younger child. Notably, however, at least three in ten parents of children ages 5-11 across partisan groups say they want to “wait and see” how the vaccine works for other children before getting their child vaccinated.
