VCU study: over 50% of people wary of COVID-19 vaccine under emergency use authorization

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Researchers with Virginia Commonwealth University conducted a study to determine the willingness of adult’s to get a COVID-19 vaccine. The results show that while over half of participants plan to get a coronavirus vaccine in the future, theres an over 10% decrease when asked if they’d get the vaccine under the emergency use authorization.

The study presented 788 adults with the survey to see willingness to receive the vaccine and more specifically their willingness while the vaccine is under emergency use authorization.

VCU reported the following findings:

• 59.9% of respondents were definitely or probably planning to receive a future coronavirus vaccine
• 18.8% were neutral
• 21.3% were probably or definitely not planning to get it.

The responses changed when asked if they would get the vaccine under an emergency use authorization, with only 46.9% of respondents saying they were willing to do so and 53.1% saying they were unwilling.

“The biggest issue coming out of this study is that participants seemed worried about receiving the  COVID-19 vaccine under emergency use authorization,” said lead author Jeanine Guidry, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Richard T. Robertson School of Media and Culture in the College of Humanities and Sciences and director of the Media+Health Lab at VCU.

The study showed that certain things such as education level, having health insurance and perceived risk of getting the virus.

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