Satisfaction With U.S. Vaccine Rollout Surges to 68%

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- With well over 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses administered, the public's satisfaction with the rollout has surged 24 percentage points to 68% in the last month.

Satisfaction with the COVID-19 vaccine process has doubled since January and is now at the majority-level among all major demographic subgroups. It is particularly high among adults aged 65 and older (77%), a group that has been prioritized for vaccines, those who have received at least one vaccine dose (75%) and Democrats (73%), whose satisfaction has more than tripled since President Joe Biden took office.

	Jan. 2021	Feb. 2021	Mar. 2021
	%	%	%
U.S. adults	34	44	68
Party identification
Republicans	49	47	66
Independents	37	42	63
Democrats	22	44	73
Age
18-44	30	43	63
45-64	39	46	69
65+	34	46	77
Vaccination status
Fully/Partially vaccinated	40	53	75
Plan to be vaccinated	27	42	69
Do not plan to be vaccinated	46	44	57
GALLUP PANEL

Although the transition from a Donald Trump to a Biden presidency has resulted in partisans' views on many issues flipping, this has not been the case when it comes to satisfaction with the vaccination process. Republicans' satisfaction, which was higher than Democrats' in January just after Trump left office, has increased 17 points to 66% since then.

Gallup's latest COVID-19 probability-based web panel survey was conducted Mar. 15-21, more than two weeks after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency-use authorization for the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine. Now that three FDA-approved vaccines are available, supply has increased across the country, which has likely contributed to the increase in satisfaction with the rollout.

Slight Uptick in Americans' Willingness to Receive Vaccine

With more than a million Americans receiving COVID-19 vaccines every day, the public's overall willingness to be inoculated against the disease has edged up three points. This continues the upward trajectory to a new high of 74% since hitting a low of 50% in September.

Since January, Gallup has tracked the percentages of Americans who have already been partially or fully vaccinated and included them with those who express willingness to receive one. The latest data include 19% who are fully vaccinated, 13% partially vaccinated, and 42% who plan to get vaccinated but have not yet done so. The 26% who say they would not agree to be vaccinated is the lowest by three points since July.

Although at least slim majorities of Americans in all major demographic subgroups say they are willing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine or have already done so, there continue to be significant differences among some of these groups. Older Americans, Democrats, college graduates and those with incomes of $90,000 or above are more likely than their counterparts to say they have already received a vaccine or want to do so.

	Have already received vaccine	Combined: Willing to receive/ Already received
	%	%
U.S. adults	32	74
Gender
Men	31	75
Women	33	74
Age
18-44	24	75
45-64	26	68
65+	61	84
Party identification
Republicans	27	54
Independents	27	67
Democrats	40	94
Education
Not college graduate	29	69
College graduate	39	87
Annual household income
<$36,000	24	71
$36,000-<$90,000	32	72
$90,000+	36	80
Gallup Panel, Mar. 15-21, 2021

Reasons for Reluctance About Receiving COVID-19 Vaccine

Asked for the main reason behind their reluctance to be immunized, those who are unwilling to receive a COVID-19 vaccine are most likely to say they say they want to wait and confirm it is safe (23%) or do not think the health effects from the disease would be serious if they contracted it (20%). Additionally, 16% are concerned about the speed with which the vaccine was developed, 15% do not trust vaccines in general, 10% say they already have COVID-19 antibodies due to having the disease, 9% are concerned about having an allergic reaction to the shot and 7% prefer to wait and see how effective it is in preventing the disease.

	Those who would not be vaccinated
	%
Want to wait to confirm it is safe	23
Don't think health effects of COVID-19 would be serious	20
Concerned about timeline for developing it	16
Don't trust vaccines generally	15
Had the coronavirus/have antibodies	10
Concerned about allergic reaction to the vaccine	9
Want to wait to see how effective it is	7
Gallup Panel, mar. 15-21, 2021

Americans' Mask Use Before and After Vaccination

Guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for those who have been fully vaccinated is to continue to wear a mask when in public. However, the CDC has said that fully vaccinated people can gather indoors with other fully vaccinated people without wearing a mask or with unvaccinated people from one other household if no one in that household is at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19.

As was true in January and February, it appears that Americans are following this guidance in public. Those who have already been at least partially immunized against COVID-19 (96%) are just as likely as those who have not but plan to be (96%) to say they have worn a mask outside their home in the past seven days. However, those who are not willing to be vaccinated continue to be significantly less likely to report wearing a mask (72%).

At a time when many Americans have been vaccinated, but even more are waiting to be, Gallup asked the public how their mask usage might change when around people they know have been vaccinated, people they know have not been vaccinated, and people whose vaccination status they aren't sure of.

As might be expected, Americans are much more inclined to say they would "always" wear a mask around people they know have not been vaccinated (59%) or whom they aren't sure about (65%) than someone they know has been vaccinated (31%).

	U.S. adults
	%
You know IS vaccinated	31
You know IS NOT vaccinated	59
You DON'T KNOW if they are vaccinated	65
Gallup Panel, Mar. 15-21, 2021

People who have been personally vaccinated are inclined to always wear masks around those who they know are not vaccinated (69%) or are not sure if they are vaccinated (77%). But they are far less likely to say they would always wear masks around those who have been vaccinated (21%).

The same patterns exist among those who are partially vaccinated and those who are not yet vaccinated but plan to be, though higher numbers say they would still be masked even if the other person has been vaccinated. Americans who do not plan to get vaccinated are unlikely to always wear masks around others, regardless of their vaccination status.

	You know IS vaccinated	You know IS NOT vaccinated	You DON'T KNOW if they are vaccinated
	%	%	%
Vaccination status
Fully vaccinated	21	69	77
Partially vaccinated	30	73	77
Plan to get vaccinated	41	72	77
Do not plan to get vaccinated	20	25	29
Gallup Panel, Mar. 15-21, 2021

Bottom Line

Two months into the Biden administration, the president's promise to get 100 million vaccination doses administered in his first hundred days has been kept, and he has now increased the goal to 200 million. By all accounts, the country is on track to achieve this goal, and the public is largely satisfied with the way the vaccine process is going.

Yet, there have been considerable problems in some states with the rollout, and there still is not enough overall supply to meet demand. If people who are anxious to get vaccinated have to wait weeks or months to do so, Americans may become less satisfied with the rollout.

The 26% reading for Americans who remain unwilling to receive the shot has been fairly steady over the past few months. In order to achieve herd immunity and a return to normal, prepandemic life, public officials will likely continue to try to chip away at this reluctant group.

Learn more about how the Gallup Panel works.