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President Donald Trump said on Friday that the United States will manufacture at least 100 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine before the end of the year. But a new survey by the Pew Research Group found that 77 percent of Americans are concerned that the vaccine will be distributed before its safety and efficacy are fully tested.
Research showed that only 51 percent of people in the US would be willing to receive a vaccine if it were available today.
Enthusiasm for receiving a coronavirus vaccine has dropped dramatically by 21 percentage points from 72 percent in May.
The decline was seen among Americans of all political parties in the United States.
But Democrats and people who lean more for Joe Biden’s party are 14 percentage points more likely to say they would get a vaccine than Republican supporters, according to the study.
The research surveyed 10,093 American adults from Sept. 8-13.
The survey was conducted while UK-based pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca said it was temporarily halting vaccine trials after a participant experienced a neurological side effect.
Among Americans who said in the survey they would not take a vaccine, 76 percent said they are primarily concerned about possible side effects.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it could authorize a COVID-19 vaccine before the final testing phase is completed through an emergency approval.
The FDA said it would approve a coronavirus vaccine if it was safe and was at least 50 percent effective in preventing disease or lessening the severity of the virus.
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“I think he was confused. I think he just misunderstood the question, probably.”
Trump has made the promise to deliver a vaccine this year at the center of his election campaign.
At a press conference at the White House on Friday, he announced that a COVID-19 vaccine will be available to all Americans in April.
He said: “Hundreds of millions of doses will be available each month, and we hope to have enough vaccines for all Americans in April, and again I will say that even at that later stage, delivery will be as fast as possible. “
But Dr. Redfield said earlier this week that a vaccine won’t be available until the fall of next year.
Speaking to the US Senate Subcommittee on Labor Appropriations, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, Dr. Redfield said: “If you ask me when it will be available to the American public so we can begin to take advantage of the vaccine to get back to our normal lives, I think we’re probably looking at the third … end of the second quarter, third quarter of 2021. “
At the press conference, Trump stated that “massive quantities” of the vaccine “will be delivered through our great army, and the general is one of our best and ready to go.”
He added: “Again we are very advanced in the vaccine, we think that at some point in the very near future we will have it.
“We are … I would say, I think I can say, years ahead of schedule, what it would be like if it were a different administration than this one.”
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