Trump has recently doubled down on his support for the vaccines, regardless of opposition from a significant portion of his supporters. The former president was booed after revealing that he had received a booster shot at an event with conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly last weekend, while he insisted that the shots were “one of the greatest achievements of mankind” after facing resistance during an interview with anti-vaccine Daily Wire host Candace Owens a short time later.
A poll released this week by The Economist/YouGov suggests that Trump’s apparent efforts to change the minds of his unvaccinated followers could be a tall order, given that 75 percent of those who remain unvaccinated and voted for him in 2020 said that they did “not plan on ever getting ANY shots of ANY COVID-19 vaccine.” Another 12 percent said that they “might” get a shot in the future, while only 3 percent said they would “definitely” get vaccinated and 10 percent preferred to not answer.
Vaccine hesitancy was also high among unvaccinated voters who picked President Joe Biden last year, with a slight 51 percent majority of Biden voters promising to never get vaccinated. However, a larger share of vaccine hesitant Biden voters did appear willing to consider getting vaccinated—35 said they might get the shot later, 6 percent responded that they definitely would and 8 percent preferred not to answer.
Respondents who identified themselves as liberals were the group most likely to say they would “definitely” get vaccinated later, at 26 percent, although a 42 percent plurality of the same group said they would never get vaccinated. Those who identified as ideological conservatives were the most likely to say that they would never get a shot, slightly surpassing Trump voters at 78 percent.
Trump voters, regardless of vaccination status, were also among the least likely to agree that the COVID-19 vaccines are safe. While 39 percent of Trump voters said the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), was “very” or “somewhat” safe," a nearly equal 37 percent said the vaccine was somewhat or very “unsafe.”
Trump supporters were slightly more trusting of the Moderna vaccine, which has been given an FDA emergency use authorization, with 41 percent saying it is safe and 36 percent deeming it unsafe. Among all groups, confidence was lowest for the authorized Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which has been linked to a very rare blood clotting disorder—nearly half of Trump voters who responded to the poll said it was unsafe at 49 percent.
The poll was conducted online among 1,500 U.S. adults, including 1,315 registered voters, between December 19 and December 21. It has a margin of error of 3 percent.
Newsweek reached out to the office of Trump for comment.
