News Release
Half of Public Has
Heard Little or Nothing About the New COVID-19 Booster Aimed at Omicron;
Many Don’t Know If the CDC Recommends That They Get the New Booster
One Third of Adults, Including Nearly Half of Seniors, Say They’ve Either
Gotten the New Booster or Intend to Do So ASAP
Nearly 1 in 5 Parents of Children Under 5 Say Their Child Has Gotten a
Vaccine, up from 7% in July, Though Half Say They Will “Definitely Not”
Get Their Child Vaccinated
Less than a month after
the Food and Drug Administration authorized new COVID-19 booster shots
that target both the omicron and original strains, public awareness is
modest, a new KFF
COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor survey finds.
Half the public says
they’ve heard either “a lot” (17%) or “some” (33%) about the new
boosters, while the other half says they’ve heard “a little” or “nothing
at all.” Older adults (ages 65 and up), who tend to be at greater risk
for serious COVID-19 complications, are most likely to know about the new
booster.
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The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention has recommended that all vaccinated adults and
children ages 12 and up get the new bivalent vaccine, even if they
received a previous booster. About half of vaccinated adults (49%) say
that they know the new vaccine is recommended for people like them, two
in five (40%) are not sure, and 11% say that it is not recommended.
Fielded just weeks after
the new booster became available, the new survey shows that about a third
(32%) of adults say that they’ve either gotten the new booster (5%) or
intend to do so as soon as possible (27%). Among older adults (ages 65
and up), nearly half (45%) say they’ve already gotten the new booster
(8%) or plan to get it as soon as possible (37%).
“America is not rushing
out to get the new booster. Most are only dimly aware of it, which is not
surprising in a country that seems to have mostly moved on,” KFF
President and CEO Drew Altman said. “The exception may be older folks, who
are at greater risk and early on are more interested in the new booster.”
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Adult vaccination rates
overall have been relatively steady over the past year. Nearly eight in
ten (77%) now say they have gotten at least one dose of any COVID-19
vaccine, including about half who got at least one booster dose (47%), a
quarter who have been fully vaccinated but have not gotten a booster
(26%), and a few who are partially vaccinated (3%). In addition, 23% are
unvaccinated, the vast majority of whom say they will “definitely not”
get a shot (88% of the unvaccinated, or 21% of all adults).
Rising Share
of Parents with Young Children Report Getting Them Vaccinated
The new survey finds
about one in five (19%) parents with children ages 6 months through 4
years report getting their child a COVID-19 vaccine, up significantly
since July (7%) soon after children in that age group became eligible.
At the same time,
slightly more than half (53%) of parents of these young children say they
will “definitely not” get their child a vaccine, also up from earlier
this year.
Among other parents with children in this age range, 6% say they plan to
vaccinate their children “right away,” 14% say they want to “wait and
see” how it works for others, and 8% say they will get them vaccinated
“only if required” for school or other activities.
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The new survey also
provides updated data on what parents of older children say about their
vaccine intentions:
- Almost
half (46%) of parents with children ages 5-11 now report their child
has gotten vaccinated, up a bit since earlier in this year. More
than a third of these parents say they will “definitely not” get
their child vaccinated.
- About
six in ten parents of teenagers, ages 12-17, say their child has
been vaccinated (62%), while nearly a third (31%) say they will
definitely not get their child vaccinated.
Designed and analyzed by
public opinion researchers at KFF, the Vaccine Monitor survey was
conducted from Sept 15-26, 2022, online and by telephone among a
nationally representative sample of 1,534 U.S. adults, in English and in
Spanish. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage
points for the full sample. For results based on other subgroups, the
margin of sampling error may be higher.
The KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor is an
ongoing research project tracking the public’s attitudes and experiences
with COVID-19 vaccinations. Using a combination of surveys and
qualitative research, this project tracks the dynamic nature of public
opinion as vaccine development and distribution unfold, including vaccine
confidence and acceptance, information needs, trusted messengers and
messages, as well as the public’s experiences with vaccination.
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