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Half of U.S. Adults Received at Least One COVID-19 Vaccine Dose

By Claire Meyer
19 April 2021

Today in Security

All adults across the United States are now eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine, and more than 131 million people—approximately half of all U.S. adults—have received at least one dose, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). About 84.3 million people have been fully vaccinated in the United States.

Some subgroups of U.S. adults have even higher vaccination rates. Nearly 80 percent of pre-K-12 teachers, school staff, and childcare workers had received their first shot of a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of March, according to the CDC. Of people 65 years of age and older, 81 percent have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

The rate of vaccination is picking up as well, with an average of 3.2 million doses administered each day, up from roughly 2.5 million in mid-March. At the current pace, 70 percent of the U.S. adult population will be vaccinated by mid-June.

Vaccination efforts are in a race with virus variants, however, and the United States averaged upwards of 67,000 new COVID-19 cases a day during the past week, compared to 54,000 a month ago, The New York Times reports.

Meanwhile, the current pause of the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine due to a potential link with a rare blood-clotting disorder may harden some Americans’ hesitancy to get vaccinated. This could threaten the achievement of herd immunity, which would help protect vulnerable populations and people who cannot yet get vaccinated, such as children.

According to a poll from Monmouth University (conducted from 8–12 April, before the official pause of the J&J vaccine) of 800 adults, about one in five (21 percent) of Americans said they will never get a COVID-19 vaccine if they can avoid it—a “statistically insignificant” three-point drop from prior polls in January and March. However, the number who say they want to wait and see how it goes, watching the results as other people are vaccinated, dropped from 21 percent in March to 12 percent in April.

So far, more than 50 percent of the U.S. adult population reports having already received at least one dose, and 14 percent say they will get the vaccine as soon as they are allowed. More white Americans (54 percent) than people of color (45 percent) reported having been at least partially vaccinated.

The poll found that partisanship is the most distinguishing factor among people avoiding the vaccine—43 percent were Republican, 5 percent were Democrats, and 22 percent were Independents.

“The number of people who have been skittish about the vaccine has dropped as more Americans line up for the shot, but the hardcore group who want to avoid it at all costs has barely budged,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, in the findings report. “The recent news about J&J vaccines is probably not going to help that situation. On the other hand, it might not make it all that much worse since much of this reluctance is really ingrained in partisan identity.”

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