The vast majority of Asian Americans have expressed willingness to get vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it becomes available.
Lining up for the vaccine: A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center revealed that 83% of English-speaking Asian Americans said they “would definitely or probably get vaccinated,” Business Insider reported.
- The figure shows a significant gap from all other ethnic and racial groups, with 42% of Black Americans saying they’re willing to take it, while 61% of white and 63% of Hispanic respondents said they would.
- Overall, only 60% of American adults said they intend to get vaccinated, which rose from 51% who said they would in September.
- The figure is far below the 72% who were willing to do so in May while clinical trials were still underway.
- 39% of respondents said they would not get a vaccine.
- 18% of respondents said, “it’s possible they would decide to get vaccinated” after people have started getting the vaccine and more information has been made available.
- 21% of respondents said they “are ‘pretty certain’ more information will not change their mind.”
- The national survey, which covered 12,648 U.S. adults, was conducted between Nov. 18 and Nov. 29.
Among hardest hit by COVID-19: An earlier analysis by The Associated Press and the nonprofit news organization The Marshall Project suggests that Asian Americans have been one of the racial groups hit hardest by the virus, reported PBS.
- “Excess deaths,” or the number of deaths above the average for a particular time period, among Asian Americans through July have increased by 35%. It is the biggest increase among racial groups after Hispanic Americans, the study found.
- The findings also revealed, however, that only about half of the Asian American deaths have been officially linked to COVID-19, which is lower than for all other groups.
- Harvard University’s public health school lecturer Jarvis Chen posited that “Asian Americans may not be getting tested at the same rate as other groups,” noting that could result in some virus deaths being attributed to something else.
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