As President Joe Biden works to ramp up the supply of Covid-19 vaccines in the United States, public health officials and infectious disease experts warn of another big challenge for the new administration: A significant portion of the U.S. population will likely refuse to get vaccinated.
Even though clinical trial data shows Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines are safe and highly effective, just under half of adults in the U.S. surveyed in December said they were very likely to get vaccinated. That could potentially jeopardize U.S. vaccination efforts to control the pandemic.
The goal, according to Biden’s chief medical advisor, Dr. Anthony Fauci, is to vaccinate between 70% and 85% of the U.S. population to achieve herd immunity and suppress the pandemic.
“The concern I have, and something we’re working on, is getting people who have vaccine hesitancy, who don’t want to get vaccinated,” he said at a press briefing last month.
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