Kaiser Foundation Survey: 22% of Americans Have Received COVID Booster and 23% of Vaccinated Adults Cite Vaccine Side Effects as a Reason for Not Getting Boosted.
The number of unvaccinated Americans (27%) held steady from September to December. Parent opposition to school vaccine mandates has risen 12% since 2019 as uptake among chlidren under 12 remains low.
A new survey by the Kaiser Foundation on COVID vaccines and similar topics was released on December 16, 2022.
Some major findings of the survey include:
22% of American adults have revived a COVID booster
23% of vaccinated Americans cite vaccine side effects as a reason for not getting a COVID booster
Parental opposition to school vaccine mandates has increased 12% since 2019
38% of Democrats and 39% of Americans 65 or older have received a COVID booster
11% of Americans ages 18 to 29, 18% of Americans ages 30-4,9 and 20% of adults ages 50-64 have reported receiving a COVID booster shot
61% of children between the ages of 5 and 11 are unvaccinated against COVID
The Kaiser Survey
The Kaiser Foundation has been conducting regular surveys about various COVID related topics called KFF Health Tracking Poll/KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor.
The demographics of the survey:
The survey asked respondents what the top priority for Congress should be. The most popular response was the economy/inflation (37%).
Health care ranked second (9%), immigration ranked third (8%), abortion/reproductive rights ranked fourth (5%), guns/crime/safety ranked fifth (4%), and climate change and democracy/election and voting reform ranked sixth (3%):
Vaccine Uptake and Views on COVID
The survey asked a variety of questions related to vaccination status, views on vaccines and COVID, and booster status among adults and children.
Adults
The survey found that only 22% of American adults have received a COVID booster and that 27% of American adults were unvaccinated from September and December 2022:
When vaccinated adults were asked about why they chose not get a COVID-19 boosters, 23% cited vaccine side effects a reason for not receiving a booster:
Democrats (38%) and adults 65 years of age and older (39%) were most likely to receive a booster. Only 11% of Americans ages between the ages of 18 and 29 have received a COVID-19 booster, while only 18% of adults ages 30-49 and 20% of adults ages 50-64 have reported receiving a COVID booster shot:
Fear of COVID continues to decline, with 63% of Americans reporting they are not worried or not too worried that they will get sick from COVID and 51% reporting they are not worried about rising COVID hospitalizations during the winter:
When asked about 8 different health care issues and to rank the priority they should be for Congress, funding for COVID tied for second to last place in the Top/important but not top priority category.
Children
53% of parents are not worried or not too worried about their child becoming sick from COVID:
Vaccine uptake among children has remained low.
84% of children between the ages of 6 months and 4 years of age have not received a COVID vaccines, with 54% of parents sharing they had no plans to get their child vaccinated for COVID:
39% of children between the ages of 5 and 11 have received a COVID vaccine while 61% remain unvaccinated and only 14% have received a booster:
Vaccine uptake has been higher among children between the ages of 12 and 17, with 58% of that age group receiving at least one COVID vaccine while only 16% received a booster:
School Vaccine Mandates
The survey also asked parents about school vaccine mandates. 71% of parents support vaccine mandates in public school.
28% of parents oppose vaccine mandates for children, which KFF notes is a 16% increase since 2019: