TULSA, Okla. — While a vaccine for the coronavirus is being developed, an Oklahoma State University study shows many Americans have no intention to get one.
OSU Professor Matt Motta conducted a study breaking down how many people may refuse this vaccine. He found between a third to as many as half of the nation plan to refuse a coronavirus vaccine.
Motta said safety, cost, leadership, and misinformation are the reasons why.
“Assuming that this vaccine is going to be free, that is something that needs to be made abundantly clear to people in order to encourage vaccination,” Motta said.
Motta said some believe it may be too expensive, while others just don't trust current elected officials.
“We also saw in our research a very large split between Democrats and Republicans," Motta said. "Even though this vaccine, and the potential of it, and the potential role out of a vaccine is being carried out by the Trump administration. We see that Republicans are less likely than Democrats to intend to vaccinate.”
Despite the results, Motta said the only way Oklahoma, or the nation, will recover completely is if Americans get vaccinated.
“When a vaccine comes out, if we want to put the spread of the COVID-19 in decline," Motta said. "We need people not to just chose to get the vaccine, but we need people to take other public health precautions as well. It is going to take time to get people vaccinated.”
With over seven million total cases of the coronavirus in the nation, several pharmaceutical companies are in their final human trial phases.
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