Nearly 65% of Americans say they WILL get a coronavirus vaccine that is 90% effective - the same level of protection Pfizer says its shot offers
The majority of Americans say they will receive the coronavirus vaccine if it is nearly 100 percent effective at preventing illness, a new survey suggests.
Conducted by STAT News and The Harris Poll, six in 10 said they are 'somewhat or very likely' to get the jab if cuts their risk of infection by 90 percent.
Monday, Pfizer announced that its experimental coronavirus vaccine was 90 percent more effective at protecting trial participants from infection than a placebo, according to early data.
Together with the STAT survey, this suggests that the majority of Americans would be willing to take the current lead candidate vaccine.
Additionally, 70 percent of COVID-19 survivors and of people who have had a family or friend with the disease would get the highly-protective shot.
In a new poll, 63% of respondents said they would get a coronavirus vaccine if it was 90% effective at preventing infection (far right). By comparison, 48% of surveyors said they would get the vaccine if it was 25% effective (far left)
It comes as Pfizer Inc announced that 90% of people who received two injections of its vaccine were protected compared to those given a placebo. Pictured: The first patient enrolled in Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial at the University of Maryland School of Medicine receives an injection, May 4
For the report, 1,954 US adults were surveyed between October 29, 2020 and October 31, 2020.
Respondents were asked how willing they would be to get a vaccine based on different levels of efficacy.
Fewer than half reported they were very or somewhat likely to be vaccinated if it was only shown to be 25 percent effective.
Meanwhile, 61 percent said they would get immunized if it cut their risks in half and 65 percent said they would do so if it cut risks by 70 percent.
Sixty-three percent of all people polled said they would receive the vaccine if it cut their risk of infection by at least 90 percent.
Younger Americans were much more wary about getting an inoculation.
Only 56 percent of those between ages 18 and 34 years old said they would likely to get vaccinated if the shot cut their infection risk in half.
This figure increased to 64 percent if the jab reduced coronavirus infection risk by 75 percent.
'If we're actually at 90 percent, it's going to reinforce for two-thirds of Americans who are then much more likely to take the vaccine, although I think it's fair to say that it doesn't need to be 90% effective to get that pull through,' Rob Jekielek, managing director of The Harris Poll, told STAT News.
'It may not necessarily need to be the 90 percent that Pfizer is showing in its preliminary results.
'But the data indicates it will have to be over 50 percent for the general public and over 75 percent for that younger generation of Americans.'
The survey also asked Americans if they viewed COVID-19 as a very serious threat, a somewhat serious threat, a minimal threat, or not at all a threat.
Results showed 81 percent consider the virus to a somewhat serious or very serious public health threat, but perception of risk varied by age.
Among those from ages 18 to 34, 76 percent saw COVID-19 as a somewhat or very serious public health threat compared with 87 percent of respondents aged 65 or older.
The news comes just one day after Pfizer Inc and its German partner, BioNTech SE, announced that interim data showed its coronavirus vaccine is 90 percent effective.
Now, the drugmaker plans to apply for emergency use authorization with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by the end of the month.
The US has already paid $1.95 billion for 100 million initial doses of the vaccine and Pfizer says it could have up to 50 million doses available by the end of 2020 if it receives FDA approval.
However, the vaccine will not be widely available at first. It is likely that frontline health workers and high-risk groups will receive the jab before it is available to the general public.
