Vaccination against Covid-19 has been sold to the public as a ticket back to normality, but a new poll has found that those who’ve taken the jab are even more scared of socializing than the unvaccinated.
Nearly half of all American adults have had their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and 35% are fully vaccinated against Covid-19. President Joe Biden has urged the remainder to “get the shot,” and in a speech last week, Biden described the ongoing vaccination drive as “a serious step toward a return to normal.”
But vaccinated Americans aren’t rushing to return to normal. Glancing through comments on social media reveals a whole host of people – usually political liberals – who proudly proclaim that they’ll continue to mask up outdoors even after receiving their two vaccine shots.
It’s not just internet crazies either. A Morning Consult poll published on Wednesday shows that vaccinated Americans are less comfortable about returning to public activities than their unvaccinated counterparts.
So the unvaccinated are willing to act like they’re vaccinated more than the people who are actually vaccinated. What. The. Hell. https://t.co/s5BAY3GqmT
For example, just 17% of vaccinated adults would feel comfortable going on a cruise, compared to 37% who haven’t got the shot. Only 15% of vaccinated adults would travel abroad, while 32% would happily take a foreign trip with no vaccination. 27% would feel comfortable going to the gym after vaccination, while 43% of the unvaccinated would happily pump iron.
The only public activities that more than half of all vaccinated adults would feel comfortable partaking in are shopping at a mall and dining at a restaurant.
To be fair, there are some issues with the poll. The ‘vaccinated’ category includes people who have received a single shot as well as people who are fully vaccinated. The former may be more likely to wait until their second dose to return to a more normal life. Those who have been vaccinated are more likely to be older and more vulnerable to serious illness, and as such could have been given higher priority for the shot. Also, while vaccination has been proven to dramatically reduce the likelihood of transmission, there is still a slim chance that vaccinated people can pass Covid-19 to others, which may explain this cohort’s caution.
On the other side, some unvaccinated people may fall into the 13% who say they’ll outright refuse the shot altogether. This minority likely paid little heed to guidelines on masking and social distancing to begin with.
In recent weeks, the Biden administration has focused its vaccine messaging on the “millions of Americans who just need a little bit of encouragement to get the shot,” as the president put it at a press conference last week.He announced a new website and SMS service that will help the public locate their closest vaccination center, as well as partnerships with stores to offer freebies and incentives to those getting vaccinated. For the hesitant, Biden said that the government will recruit “spokespersons that… people listen to,” to spread the pro-vaccine message.
However, the latest poll suggests that the administration will need to convince those that have already taken the shot that they can, in fact, partake in normal life again. Research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found that vaccines are 90% effective at stopping transmission and infection, and the agency’s guidelines clear fully vaccinated people to return to public events (though masks and social distancing are still recommended in some cases).
Speaking to governors on Tuesday, Biden said that the White House would launch “a more aggressive effort on our part to lay out that once vaccinated, it’s not only you can hug your grandchildren, you can do a lot more.”
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