Many More Older Americans Willing to Get COVID Vaccine: Poll

The University of Michigan's latest National Poll on Healthy Aging has found that 71 percent of Americans 50 to 80 years old are ready to get vaccinated for COVID-19 when a dose becomes available, or that they had already been immunized, reports HealthDay News . This is up from 58 percent last October, and poll director Preeti Malani said these findings are "incredibly encouraging, given the amount of hesitancy we saw in our poll from late fall." Boosts in vaccine receptiveness were especially high among people at greater risk of severe COVID-19, including Black and Hispanic Americans, and people in fair or poor health. A 20-point spike was observed in the percentage of Black respondents who said they would likely get vaccinated between October and January, along with an 18-point increase among Hispanics, and a 9-point gain among whites. An 11-point increase also was noted among respondents who called their health fair or poor, including many with chronic ailments that can increase their risk of serious COVID-19 illness. Yet they remained less likely to want to get inoculated than those in better health. As with the October poll, the new poll indicated that older adults with higher household incomes or more education were more likely to say they would get vaccinated.