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TUESDAY, Sept. 15, 2020 (HealthDay News) — In a sign that Americans are becoming more wary about the safety of a COVID-19 vaccine, a new poll shows a majority of adults do not trust what President Donald Trump has said on vaccine development.<\/p>\n
More than half (52 percent) of adults said they do not trust the president’s vaccine comments, the NBC News<\/i>\/SurveyMonkey poll showed, while just 26 percent said they do. Twenty percent said they were “not aware” whether they trust what the president has said about a vaccine.<\/p>\n
Those polled were also more skeptical about whether they or their families would get a government-approved COVID-19 vaccine if one became widely available, NBC News<\/i> reported. The poll’s latest data show that just 39 percent said they would get it, 23 percent said they would not, and 36 percent said they were not sure. Just a month ago, 44 percent of Americans said they would get a government-approved vaccine, 22 percent said they would not, and 32 percent said they were not sure. The highest level of confidence in a COVID-19 vaccine came during the week of Aug. 17 to Aug. 23, when 45 percent polled said they would get a vaccine.<\/p>\n
Despite public hesitancy, President Trump has promised a “safe and effective vaccine this year,” and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has advised states to prepare for “large-scale” vaccine distribution by Nov. 1. Public health experts have questioned that aggressive timeline. Anthony Fauci, M.D., the nation’s leading infectious diseases expert, has said that he feels “cautiously optimistic” that a safe and effective vaccine would be found by the end of the year, but that doing so by Nov. 3 was “unlikely,” NBC News<\/i> reported.<\/p>\n