By Mike Stobbe and Hannah Fingerhut | The Associated Press
February 10, 2021

NEW YORK (AP) — About 1 in 3 Americans say they definitely or probably won’t get the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a new poll that some experts say is discouraging news if the U.S. hopes to achieve herd immunity and vanquish the outbreak.

The poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that while 67% of Americans plan to get vaccinated or have already done so, 15% are certain they won’t and 17% say probably not. Many expressed doubts about the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness.

The poll suggests that substantial skepticism persists more than a month and a half into a U.S. vaccination drive that has encountered few if any serious side effects. Resistance was found to run higher among younger people, people without college degrees, Black Americans and Republicans.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s leading infectious-disease scientist, has estimated that somewhere between 70% and 85% of the U.S. population needs to get inoculated to stop the scourge that has killed close to 470,000 Americans. More recently, he said the spread of more contagious variants of the virus increases the need for more people to get their shots — and quickly.

So is 67% of Americans enough?

“No. No, no, no, no,” said William Hanage, a Harvard University expert on disease dynamics. He added: “You’re going to need to get quite large proportions of the population vaccinated before you see a real effect.”

About 33.8 million Americans, or 10% of the population, have received at least one dose, and 10.5 million have been fully vaccinated, according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.

The poll of 1,055 adults, taken Jan. 28 through Feb. 1, provides insight into the skepticism.

Of those who said they definitely will not get the vaccine, 65% cited worries about side effects, despite the shots’ safety record over the past months. About the same percentage said they don’t trust COVID-19 vaccines. And 38% said they don’t believe they need a vaccine, with a similar share saying that they don’t know if a COVID-19 vaccine will work and that they don’t trust the government.

Of those who probably will not get the vaccine but have not ruled it out completely, 63% said they are waiting to see if it is safe, and 60% said they are concerned about possible side effects.

“I don’t trust pharmaceuticals. I really don’t. And it doesn’t sound like it’s going to be safe,” said Debra Nanez, a 67-year-old retired nurse from Tucson, Arizona.

Nanez said she has gotten flu and pneumonia shots but is concerned about rumors about what’s in the coronavirus vaccine, and her friends have the same hesitation.

“It would take a while for me to do research on it to make sure it’s safe. I just don’t want to take anything that’s going to harm me,” she said.

Baron Walker, a 42-year-old laid-off insulation installer from Parkersburg, West Virginia, said he is in the “probably not” column, at least for now.

He said that if he were elderly, or lived in a densely populated area, he might consider the vaccine more strongly. But he is in rural part of the country, he has been wearing a mask and social-distancing, and he feels there is a good chance the nation will achieve herd immunity, he said.

“I feel like I have plenty of time before I get a chance to get (the vaccine) anyway, to find out if there are bad side effects and whether it’s even worth getting it,” Walker said.

In interviews, some Americans expressed concerns about the revolutionary speed with which the vaccines were developed — less than a year.

“I feel like they rushed it,” Walker said.

That was echoed by Matt Helderman, 31, of Greer, South Carolina.

“I’d like to see more safety data,” said Helderman, a video editor and associate producer for a Christian TV program. He also said that he would like to see more clarity on whether the vaccine is effective against new variants.

Health officials are trying to counter concerns about the vaccine with science.

The latest evidence indicates that the two vaccines being used in the U.S. — Pfizer’s and Moderna’s — are effective even against the variants, Fauci said.

Also, while the development of the vaccines was unusually fast, it was the culmination of many years of research. And the vaccines went through clinical trials involving thousands of people who were monitored for 60 days after their last dose. Studies of other vaccines have found that harmful side effects almost always materialize within 45 days.

“Safety certainly was not compromised, nor was scientific integrity compromised,” Fauci said. “Many have reason for skepticism. But I think that when you explain the facts and the data to them, you can win them over.”

The survey found that older Americans, who are more vulnerable to COVID-19, are especially likely to say they have received a shot or will probably or definitely get vaccinated. Four in 10 of those under 45 say they will probably or definitely not get a vaccine, compared with a quarter of those older.

Black Americans appear less likely than white Americans to say they have received the shot or will definitely or probably get vaccinated, 57% versus 68%. Among Hispanic Americans, 65% say they have gotten or plan to get the vaccine.

Public health experts have long known that some Black Americans are distrustful of the medical establishment because of its history of abuses, including the infamous Tuskegee study, in which Black patients with syphilis were left untreated so that doctors could study the disease.

Americans without a college degree are more likely than college-educated ones to say they will definitely or probably not get vaccinated, 40% versus 17%. And Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say that, 44% versus 17%.

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Fingerhut reported from Washington.

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The AP-NORC poll of 1,055 adults was conducted Jan. 28-Feb. 1 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

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Online:

AP-NORC Center: http://www.apnorc.org/.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Adrian Sainz and Hannah Fingerhut | the Associated Press

June 18, 2021

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Many Americans are relaxing precautions taken during the COVID-19 pandemic and resuming everyday activities, even as some worry that coronavirus-related restrictions were hastily lifted, a new poll shows.

The poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that majorities of Americans who were regularly doing so before the pandemic say they are returning to bars or restaurants, traveling and attending events such as movies or sports.

Just 21% are very or extremely worried about a COVID-19 infection in their inner circle — the lowest level since the pandemic began — and only 25% are highly concerned that the lifted restrictions will lead to additional people being infected in their community.

Andrea Moran, a 36-year-old freelance writer and mother of two boys, said she feels both relief and joy at the chance to resume “doing the little things,” such as having drinks on a restaurant patio with her husband.

“Honestly, I almost cried,” Moran said. “It’s such a feeling of having been through the wringer, and we’re finally starting to come out of it.”

Still, 34% of Americans think restrictions in their area have been lifted too quickly, while somewhat fewer — 27% — say they were not lifted quickly enough. About 4 in 10 rate the pace of reopening about right.

The way Americans approached their daily lives suddenly changed after COVID-19 spread through the U.S. in early 2020. Following the advice of health officials and governments, people isolated in their homes — either alone or with families — to avoid exposure to the virus, which has sickened more than 33 million people and killed 600,000 people in the U.S.

During the height of the pandemic, restaurants, movie theaters and stores either closed or continued operating with limited occupancy; church services, schools and government meetings went virtual; and many employers made working from home an option or a requirement. Mask wearing in public became the norm in most places, with some states and cities making it mandatory.

The emergence of the vaccine has helped slow down rates of infection and death, allowing state and local economies to reopen and leading Americans to return to activities they once enjoyed.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised last month that vaccinated Americans don’t have to wear a mask in most scenarios, indoors or out. The latest CDC data shows 53% of all Americans — 65% of those 18 and older — have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

According to the AP-NORC poll, American adults who have not yet rolled up their sleeves for the shot remain hesitant to do so. Just 7% of those who have not been vaccinated say they definitely will get a COVID-19 vaccine, and 15% say they probably will.

Forty-six percent of Americans who have not been vaccinated say they will definitely not get a vaccine, and 29% say they probably will not. Young adults, Americans without a college degree, white evangelicals, rural Americans and Republicans are most hesitant to get vaccinated.

The poll finds many Americans are still wearing masks and taking precautions to avoid contact with other people, but the percentage of those doing so is down significantly from just a few months ago.

In late February, 65% said they were always wearing a mask around people outside their households. Now, just 37% say so, though 19% say they often wear one.

Forty percent of Americans say they are extremely or very likely to wear a mask when participating in indoor activities outside their homes, while just 28% say the same about outdoor activities.

Aaron Siever, 36, of New Market, Virginia, said he and his wife have consistently worn masks and taken other precautions, including getting vaccinated. But Siever said virus-related restrictions were not lifted quickly enough, lamenting that some precautions were politicized and caused an “inherent panic.”

“I think with masks being worn and people getting vaccinated, I think we could have opened a little earlier,” said Siever, who maintains the grounds of Civil War battlefields in Virginia. “We started focusing on the politics of reopening, rather than the health.”

Now that most states have lifted restrictions, the poll finds about two-thirds of Americans who used to travel at least monthly say they will do so in the next few weeks. About three-quarters of frequent restaurant or bar-goers before the pandemic say they will now return. A year ago, only about half said they would travel or go to restaurants if they could.

Likewise, more are returning to activities such as visiting friends and family, seeing movies or concerts, attending sporting events and shopping in-person for nonessential items.

In Cookeville, Tennessee, Moran said her family still regularly wears masks in public, especially when they are indoors or around a lot of people. Both she and her husband have been vaccinated. Moran said she has eaten at outdoor restaurants, but she is avoiding indoor dining.

“Even if the air conditioning circulation is good, I just don’t feel comfortable right now going inside, where there’s a lot of people in fairly close proximity who I don’t know,” Moran said.

Moran said her family avoided nonessential travel during the height of the pandemic, canceling a trip to see her brother in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. But last weekend, the family traveled for the first time in more than a year — a roughly 3 1/2-hour road trip to Asheville, North Carolina, to visit a childhood friend.

“I felt a little bit nervous just because being around people is such a surreal thing after so long,” Moran said. “I was really excited and I was thrilled for my kids that they were able to get out and get back to some semblance of normality.”

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Fingerhut reported from Washington.

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The AP-NORC poll of 1,125 adults was conducted June 10-14 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.2 points.

Zeke Miller and Lisa Mascaro | the Associated Press

June 17, 2021

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is facing a formidable to-do list now that he’s back from his summit-filled trip to Europe, with pressing legislative challenges, foreign policy follow-up and a need to steer the country’s reopening as the coronavirus threat recedes.

His overseas tour was meant to showcase the U.S. return to global leadership — a central pledge of Biden’s 2020 campaign for the White House – but he now faces a critical juncture for securing other planks of his agenda. From voting rights and immigration to his massive legislation on jobs and infrastructure, Biden is trying to get as much done as possible in Congress before the start of its August recess.

“I think we — the country, has put a different face on where we’ve been and where we’re going,” Biden told reporters on the tarmac in Geneva late Wednesday as he headed back to Washington. “And I feel good about it.”

It has been a start-and-stop process on many of Biden’s priorities on Capitol Hill, where Democrats hold the majority but only by the narrowest margins. He is reaching for bipartisan deals with Republicans while also moving along with his own party’s go-it-alone strategy, a two-pronged approach that is particularly coming into focus on his big infrastructure investment plan.

Other legislation, on voting rights, policing reforms and immigration, will need support from Republicans in the Senate, and talks are teetering on those and other issues as bipartisan groups of lawmakers strain to find agreements while the days tick off on the legislative calendar.

Talks over immigration have all but come to a standstill, and Democrats are now eying putting some immigration law changes into the infrastructure overhaul, relying on budget rules that would allow majority passage without the need for Republican votes. Talks on policing reform are still going, but even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi noted Thursday, “It’s challenging.”

Still, Biden enters the legislative struggle from a position of strength. A new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, conducted while he was abroad, found 55% of Americans approve of his handling of his job as president.

The White House believes that Biden’s proposals are broadly popular in the country, if not on Capitol Hill, and is wagering that lawmakers can be brought along with a combination of cajoling and the presidential bully pulpit.

Biden is expected to resume regular domestic travel to promote the infrastructure legislation, and continue his behind-the-scenes engagement with lawmakers on other issues where his public involvement might not be as productive.

The AP-NORC poll, conducted prior to Biden’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, found about half approving of his handling of foreign policy as well as his handling of the U.S. relationship with Russia. Sixty-eight percent approve of his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic — his strongest issue throughout his presidency so far.

While Biden was away, a new round of bipartisan infrastructure talks intensified as a growing group of 21 senators fine-tuned their $1 trillion plan to meet the long-overlooked national priority. At the same time, Senate Democrats under Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders plotted a $6 trillion go-it-alone approach.

Biden, who was loosely following the back-and-forth while abroad, was briefed on the measures Thursday at the White House, according to an administration official who said the president planned to assess the likelihood of a bipartisan deal next week.

The White House sought to keep up momentum for the president’s legislative agenda while he was away — particularly the infrastructure bill — by deploying Cabinet secretaries across the country and to meetings on Capitol Hill.

Biden aides also held more than 130 calls or meetings with lawmakers and staff about the infrastructure proposal and a dozen staff briefings for aides in both parties.

Meanwhile, senior Biden aides have been keeping in constant communication both with Democrats and Republicans working on the bipartisan deal as well as the progressive lawmakers working on the party’s ‘plan B.’

At the same time, Biden returned to the U.S. with a pile of new initiatives from his talks with allies and adversaries.

He must fulfill his commitment to sharing 80 million COVID-19 vaccine doses with the world by the end of this month, while devising plans to meet his pledge to share a further 500 million over the next year. White House COVID coordinator Jeff Zients said Thursday that the administration would be unveiling the recipients of those 80 million doses in the coming days, as the U.S. works through the diplomatic and logistical hurdles to ship vaccines abroad as quickly as possible.

Having secured an agreement with the European Union to end a 16-year dispute over commercial airliners, Biden said he is now looking to bring about a de-escalation in a host of other trade tensions with the bloc as he tries to develop a more united front to counter China’s trade practices. He’s tasked U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to step up negotiations.

And after sitting down with Putin, Biden said the next six months would determine whether a constructive partnership could be formed in areas of mutual interest, from nuclear arms control and safeguarding critical infrastructure from cyberattacks to a potential exchange of imprisoned citizens. Progress on any of those fronts would be ironed out in the months ahead, Biden added.

“The president was very clear yesterday that the proof of the pudding is in the eating,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Thursday. “It is the start of the story, and how the story ends will unfold here over the course, as he said, of the next six months to a year.”

Alexandra Olson | the Associated Press

June 10, 2021

NEW YORK (AP) — Karen Glidden’s loneliness became unbearable during the coronavirus pandemic.

The 72-year-old widow, who suffers from vision loss and diabetes and lives far from any relatives, barely left her house in Champion, Michigan, this past year, for fear of contracting the virus. Finally vaccinated, she was looking forward to venturing out when her beloved service dog died last month.

It doesn’t help that her circle of trusted friends has dwindled to one neighbor she counts on to help her shop, get to the doctor and hang out.

“I feel like I’m in a prison most of the time and once in a while, I get to go out,” said Glidden, whose adult children live in California and Hawaii, where she was born and raised.

She is not alone in her sense of social isolation.

Millions of Americans are struggling through life with few people they can trust for personal and professional help, a disconnect that raises a key barrier to recovery from the social, emotional and economic fallout of the pandemic, according to a new a poll from The Impact Genome Project and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

The poll finds 18% of U.S. adults, or about 46 million people, say they have just one person or nobody they can trust for help in their personal lives, such as emergency child care needs, a ride to the airport or support when they fall sick. And 28% say they have just one person or nobody they can trust to help draft a resume, connect to an employer or navigate workplace challenges.

The isolation is more acute among Black and Hispanic Americans. Thirty-eight percent of Black adults and 35% of Hispanic adults said they had only one or no trusted person to help navigate their work lives, compared with 26% of white adults. In their personal lives, 30% of Hispanic adults and 25% of Black adults said they have one or no trusted people, while 14% of white adults said the same.

Researchers have long debated the idea that the U.S. has suffered from a decline in social capital, or the value derived from personal relationships and civic engagement.

The General Social Survey, a national representative survey conducted by NORC since 1972, suggests that the number of people Americans feel they can trust had declined by the early 2000s, compared with two decades earlier, although there is little consensus about the extent of this isolation or its causes. The rise of social media has added another layer of debate, as experts explore whether it broadens networks or lures people in isolating echo chambers.

The Impact Genome/AP-NORC poll sought to measure how much social capital Americans can count as they try to pick up the pieces of lives fractured by the pandemic. The findings suggest that for many Americans, the pandemic has chipped away at whatever social capital they had going into it.

Americans were more likely to report a decline than an increase in the number of people they could trust over the past year. Just 6% of Americans said their network of trusted people grew, compared with 16% who reported that it shrank. While the majority of Americans said the number of people they could trust stayed the same, nearly 3 in 10 said they asked for less support from family and friends because of COVID-19.

Community bonds have proved to be critical to recovery from calamities such as Superstorm Sandy in 2012, said Jennifer Benz, deputy director of The AP-NORC Center.

But the nature of the pandemic made those bonds difficult or even impossible to maintain. Schools, community centers, churches, synagogues and mosques closed. People couldn’t ask neighbors or grandparents for help with child care or other needs for fear of spreading the virus.

About half of Americans are engaged in civic groups such as religious institutions, schools or community service groups, according to the new poll. And 42% of all adults said they have become less involved with civic groups during the pandemic, compared with just 21% who said they became more engaged.

“Compared to the way social capital can be leveraged in other disasters, the key difference has been that this is a disaster where your civic duty was to be on your own,” Benz said.

Surveys from the Pew Research Center suggested that relocation increased during the pandemic. While some people moved to be closer to family, more relocated because of job loss or other financial stresses.

Warlin Rosso, 29, has moved often in pursuit of financial stability, often at the cost of his social ties.

He left behind his entire family, including 14 siblings, when he immigrated to the U.S. five years ago from the Dominican Republic. He worked at a warehouse in Chicago for three years, sharing an apartment with a girlfriend. But when that relationship fell apart, he couldn’t afford to move out on his own. In December 2019, he relocated to Jackson, Mississippi, where a childhood friend let him move in.

That friend, Rosso said, remains the only person in Jackson he can trust for help. As the pandemic closed in, Rosso struggled in a city where the Hispanic community is tiny.

Through social media, he found work with a Nicaraguan man who owned a construction business. Later, he found a training program that landed him a job as hospital aide.

His co-workers are friendly, but he feels isolated. Sometimes, he said, patients bluntly ask to be helped by a non-Latino worker. He hopes eventually to get a similar job back in Chicago, where he has friends.

“It’s not always welcoming for Hispanics here,” Rosso said. “Here, I’m alone.”

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The AP-NORC poll of 2,314 adults was conducted March 25-April 15 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.

Terry Tang and Hannah Fingerhut | the Associated Press

May 26, 2021

WASHINGTON (AP) — A majority of Americans across racial and ethnic groups believe discrimination has worsened in the last year against Asian Americans, who became the target of attacks after being unfairly blamed for the coronavirus pandemic.

A poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds 60% of Americans say discrimination against Asian Americans has swelled compared with a year ago, including 71% of Asian Americans, 66% of Black Americans, 59% of white Americans and 55% of Hispanic Americans.

Nearly half of Americans believe Asian Americans encounter “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of discrimination in the U.S. today. The poll also finds about 6 in 10 Americans say racism in the U.S. in general is a “very” or “extremely” serious problem. And a majority of Asian Americans say they feel unsafe in public because of their race.

Susan Lee, of Sacramento, California, said friends initiated conversations with her about racism as random attacks on Asians became more frequent, but the 72-year-old Chinese American noted a key difference between friends who were Asian and non-Asian.

“My non-Asian friends are probably more astonished that this is occurring,” Lee said. “I think Chinese or ‘Asians’ have always been looked at as a positive asset. I think they are puzzled by that situation.”

Barbara Canchola, 76, of El Paso, Texas, said she would have answered “not at all” if she had been asked pre-pandemic if Asian Americans face racism. Canchola, who identifies as Hispanic, said she associated anti-Asian discrimination as something way in the past like Japanese American internment camps during World War II.

“I really wouldn’t think they are facing any kind of discrimination because I happen to think they’re very well educated — most of them — and they don’t face that much scrutiny,” Canchola said. “However, ever since the pandemic began and it was labeled a ‘China thing,’ that’s where it all began.”

She attributes her new outlook to all the television coverage “where the people are being assaulted on the street out of the blue.”

Renee Tajima-Pena, an Asian American Studies professor at the University of California, Los Angeles and co-producer of the PBS docuseries “Asian Americans,” isn’t surprised some people have never thought of Asian Americans as victims. The dominant narrative has always been they are successful, don’t speak up and, therefore, encounter little racism.

“The model minority myth is such a drug for Americans,” Tajima-Pena said.

Between March 2020 and this past March, more than 6,600 anti-Asian hate incidents have been documented by Stop AAPI Hate, a national reporting center. The encounters range from verbal harassment to attacks that ended fatally, including the March 16 Atlanta-area shootings that killed six Asian women.

The Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, found that Asian-targeted hate crimes in the largest U.S. cities rose 145% in 2020 compared with 2019, even though hate crimes overall declined 6%. In the first quarter of this year, anti-Asian crimes reported to police in 16 major cities and counties jumped 164% from the same time period last year.

“That’s why people understand now the violence Asian Americans face,” Tajima-Pena said. “People couldn’t avoid it in the press or the national conversation. People are gathering data and talking about it.”

Fifty-seven percent of Asian Americans say they feel unsafe in public “often” or “sometimes” because of their race, similar to the share of Black Americans and higher than the share of Hispanic or white Americans. Because the survey was conducted in English and Spanish, it is representative of the English-speaking Asian American population but may not include those who primarily speak a language other than English.

Glendon Yuri-Sweetland, 34, of Brewer, Maine, blames former President Donald Trump for the increased discrimination against Asian Americans. Trump’s constant referrals to COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus” and other racist terms are still embedded in a lot of minds, he said.

“As my husband would say, ‘It’s only stirring the pot,’” Yuri-Sweetland said. “But I think that even just having that platform for a while, our former president probably has had enough exposure to get his message out.”

Close to half of Americans are “very” or “extremely” concerned that incidents of violence targeting Asian Americans have increased because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the poll, including about two-thirds of Asian Americans.

President Joe Biden last week signed the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act. The legislation will put a Justice Department official in charge of a review of anti-Asian hate crimes and will allot federal grants for law enforcement training and hate crime hotlines.

Tajima-Pena believes the visibility of Asian Americans outside of their communities has fundamentally changed in the past year and it isn’t going to fade. And videos like the one showing the brutal beating of a Filipino American woman in New York City as three people stood by and watched have undoubtedly contributed to the greater awareness.

“I think the narrative is shifting,” Tajima-Pena said. “It’s like 2020 was really the year where our response was ‘Stop AAPI hate’. … The flip side of it is in 2021, people are really looking at solutions and solidarity.”

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Tang reported from Phoenix and is a member of The Associated Press’ Race and Ethnicity team. Follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ttangAP.

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The AP-NORC poll of 1,842 adults was conducted April 29-May 3 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.