About 15% are not sure and potentially persuadable

More than 259 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been given in the United States from December 14, 2020, through May 10, 2021. As of May 5, 2021, well over half a million deaths – 576,238 people – have been reported from Covid-19 in the United States.

Yet public health officials have expressed concern that many U.S. communities may not be on track to reach the level of immunity required to halt the replication and hence the mutation of SARS-CoV-2. The rate at which Americans are being vaccinated is slowing. Faced with a lack of demand, some vaccine sites have closed. In some places, vaccines are going unused.

A national probability Annenberg Science Knowledge (ASK) survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center conducted March 30-April 19, 2021, among 1,941 U.S. adults found that although much of the public rejects false information about the virus, a substantial number of people are uncertain whether to embrace or reject consequential forms of misinformation about Covid-19 and vaccination against it. The percentages presented here combine those who consider a claim “probably” or “definitely” true as well as the percentages who consider a claim “probably” or “definitely” false. The margin of error is +/- 2.9 percentage points. (Additional findings on the prevalence of conspiracy beliefs will be released May 19th).