All Massachusetts residents age 16 and older can now sign up for a COVID-19 vaccine, but that doesn’t mean everyone eligible will want the shot.
In the coming weeks, state public health officials expect demand to slow down, and the hardest push, many believe, will be reaching out to those who are reluctant. That includes Republican men, who were some of the most hesitant in recent national polling.
Town clerk and librarian Jodie Paradis has seen this hesitation in Russell, a town of just under 2,000 residents in southwestern Massachusetts. Russell is 96% white and mostly Republican. In 2020, nearly 60% of voters there supported Donald Trump in the presidential election, the largest percentage in the commonwealth.
Updated on March 15, 2021 at 8:07 pm
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“So disturbing.”
That’s what Dr. Anthony Fauci called the results of a recent poll that found that about half of all Trump supporters do not plan to get the COVID vaccine, while just 10% of Biden supporters would skip vaccination. Download our mobile app for iOS or Android to get alerts for local breaking news and weather.
Among all adults surveyed, 30% said if the COVID vaccine was made available to them they would not choose to be vaccinated. But 80% of the population needs to be vaccinated in order for herd immunity to set in, a member of the FDA s vaccine advisory committee told NBC News Sunday.