Our new national survey produced for the COVID Collaborative finds that Americans’ actions or intentions to get vaccinated against the coronavirus held steady from January into March, marking the need for continued public awareness efforts in support of the accelerating vaccine rollout.

So far, people who want a shot are signing up – but those who’ve been hesitant, remain so. The study finds that while vaccinations rose by 14 percentage points since January, the share of Americans who intend to get vaccinated fell by 13 points, leaving actual or intended uptake steady at about seven in 10 adults.

The survey shows broad demographic and attitudinal disparities in vaccinations and uptake intentions, as well as a high level of Americans adopting a “wait and see” approach. It finds that information on the vaccines’ safety and effectiveness and on its development and testing may be most persuasive in encouraging people not to wait, along with advice from their regular healthcare provider.

The survey follows on a previous national study, also produced for the COVID Collaborative by Langer Research, that examined the strongest independent predictors of intention to get vaccinated. Chief among them are trust in the vaccines’ safety and effectiveness, the understanding that people close to you want you to get vaccinated, recognition of a community responsibility in getting vaccinated and worry about becoming infected.

See the full report here and a separate summary of attitudes among college community members here. The survey questionnaire, crosstabs and dataset have been donated to the SEAN COVID-19 Survey Archive, produced by Langer Research in support of the National Academies of Sciences’ Societal Experts Action Network, a group of social science experts convened to support pandemic response efforts.

A new national survey by the COVID Collaborative and Langer Research Associates finds that stressing safety and effectiveness, the support of loved ones and community responsibility are the surest ways to encourage coronavirus vaccine uptake.

Based on statistical modeling, the random-sample study, released today, finds four key predictors of Americans’ intention to get vaccinated:

• Safety and effectiveness. Seeing the vaccines as safe and effective is by far the single strongest predictor of intended uptake.
• A subjective social norm, meaning the sense that others close to you want you to get vaccinated. This is the second-strongest predictor of intended uptake, with considerable room for improvement on current sentiment.
• Social responsibility, the understanding that getting vaccinated is a social need rather than just a personal preference. Recognizing this “moral norm” again is far from universal, and it’s the next-strongest uptake predictor.
• Perceived disease risk. The likelier people are to be worried about catching the coronavirus, the likelier to get vaccinated against it.

The survey finds that 71 percent of Americans say they definitely or probably will get the vaccine, lean that way or already have done so. Gaining adherence among these convinced or favorably inclined groups would approach the minimum vaccination level considered desirable to achieve herd immunity.

The survey, first in a series, evaluates other vaccine uptake attitudes, including the extent of “wait-and-see” sentiment, views toward vaccines generally, concerns about potential side effects, eligibility awareness and trusted information sources. It follows on a previous national study, also produced for the COVID Collaborative by Langer Research, focused on vaccine hesitancy among Black and Hispanic Americans.

See the full report here. Underlying materials including the survey questionnaire, crosstabs and dataset have been donated to the SEAN COVID-19 Survey Archive, operated by Langer Research in support of the National Academies of Sciences’ Societal Experts Action Network, a group of social science experts convened to support pandemic response efforts.

We’re proud to have partnered with Raise Your Hand Texas Foundation to produce its second annual poll of public attitudes toward public education in the state. The newly released statewide survey finds that Texans’ views of the state’s public schools have improved amid the coronavirus pandemic: Fifty-six percent give their community’s public schools an A or B grade, up 8 points from late 2019.

The survey takes an in-depth look at attitudes toward public education in the state, with a focus on pandemic impacts. Among the results:

• Nearly eight in 10 public school parents rate their child’s school’s learning model – online, in-person or hybrid – as very or somewhat effective. Still, it’s lower, seven in 10, among parents whose child’s learning is fully remote, vs. 87 percent among those with an in-person or hybrid approach. And those with students learning entirely remotely are far less likely to call the approach very effective, 19 vs. 50 percent.
• Asked about problems facing their children during the pandemic, more than seven in 10 parents mention missing social interactions at school or with friends; 64 percent say the same of missing personal connections with teachers and 55 percent cite missing sports, music, arts and after-school activities. Two in 10 mention lack of access to food and school support services.
• Among Texans overall, majorities say it’s extremely or very important for schools to provide a safe, sanitized environment for in-person learning, to provide support for remote learning, to address learning loss caused by the move to remote learning, to provide support for students’ and teachers’ emotional health and well-being and to address student nutrition support. Most also say public schools need more funding for each of nine COVID-related challenges tested in the survey.
• Forty-four percent, including 51 percent of public school parents, said they have a greater appreciation for their community’s schools now than before the pandemic.

Additional results cover views on equity issues, school funding, ratings of teachers, and attitudes toward testing, vouchers and charter schools. See the full report here, and additional coverage by The Dallas Morning News (here and here) and the San Antonio Report. 

Seven in 10 Americans say Donald Trump bears at least some responsibility for the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and 68 percent oppose him issuing a self-pardon for federal crimes he may be accused of committing in our pre-inaugural ABC News/Washington Post poll. The poll also found that nearly nine in 10 Americans see the coronavirus as not well controlled, though with many fewer saying they’ll get vaccinated.

Additional news coverage – apart from ABC and the Post – includes The Hill, Forbes, Vox, and USA Today, and local newspapers such as The Berkshire Eagle, the Green Bay Press Gazette, The Fayetteville Observer, the Austin American-Statesman, the Albany Times Union and The Philadelphia Inquirer. 

A new nonprofit, the COVID Collaborative, was launched today with the release of a national survey by Langer Research Associates deeply evaluating vaccine hesitancy among Black Americans.
 
Grounded in a review of the literature and consultation with experts in the vaccine uptake and health equity fields, the study delves into predictors of intention to get vaccinated against the coronavirus as well as predictors of trust in vaccine safety and in the vaccine development process.
 
It finds broad distrust in the safety of the vaccine and describes avenues to encouraging uptake, including enhanced understanding of the development and approval process, the power of moral and subjective norms and messaging that’s sensitive to Black people’s experience of discrimination and mistreatment in current and historical medical practices.
 
Conducted among a random national sample of 1,050 Black adults, with a sample of 258 Latinx adults for comparison, the study is being used to help inform a $50 million vaccine education campaign directed by the Ad Council with the participation of the NAACP and UnidosUS.

See coverage of the survey in the Washington Post. 

The COVID Collaborative is a nonpartisan nonprofit created to work with state and local leaders to forge solutions to the pandemic. It was co-founded by John Bridgeland of the social enterprise firm Civic and Michelle Williams, dean of faculty at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University. Former Govs. Dirk Kempthorne, R-Idaho, and Deval Patrick, D-Massachusetts, serve as co-chairs of its Advisory Council, joined by a range of political and public health leaders.

See our report here. Full materials, including the survey questionnaire, crosstabulated data tables and dataset in .sav and .csv formats, are available on the Societal Experts Action Networks COVID-19 Survey Archive; in Search, enter “COVID Collaborative” in the Project field.  

In the interest of transparency, ABC News and The Washington Post are making the full datasets and questionnaires from their pre-election polling this fall publicly available via the PARC survey archive application. We invite others in the research community to independently evaluate and analyze this work.
 
These materials can be accessed at https://2020electionpolls.parc.us.com. Other pre-election poll producers are welcome to contribute their datasets and associated materials to this effort. Please contact us at info@parc.us.com for information.
 
To further extend access, these same research materials also are being donated to the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at Cornell University. 

At a time of intense focus on public attitudes toward science, the Pew Research Center has released a compelling cross-national survey on science and society conducted in 20 countries across the globe. Majorities across these publics express at least some confidence in scientists and support for national investments in scientific research, though many fewer have “a lot” of confidence, and, in 10 countries, 50 percent or fewer say developments in science have had a “mostly positive effect on society” – including 41 percent in the United States.
 
The study, conducted before the coronavirus pandemic, found broad concern about global warming and other environmental issues and support for environmental protection and alternative energy sources. Among other findings, the wide-ranging survey also found mixed views on developments in artificial intelligence, workplace automation and food science.
 
We at Langer Research Associates are proud to have served as the Pew Center’s primary vendor for surveys in nine of the countries covered by the project, producing nearly 14,000 random-sample interviews to Pew’s high standards in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Fifty-seven percent of Americans in our most recent ABC News/Washington Post poll say the next justice of the U.S. Supreme Court should be left to the winner of the presidential election and a Senate vote next year, with coverage (beyond ABC and the Post) by NBC News (here and here), MSNBC, PBS News Hour and Capital Public Radio News. The poll also covered the state of the 2020 presidential race, with additional reporting by Bloomberg, Forbes, USA Today, and the Houston Chronicle, among others.

We’ve also produced polls in five battleground states this month. Our Pennsylvania poll has been picked up by Politico, Axios, Vice News, and The Hill; Arizona and Florida polls by Fox News, The Hill, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and the SunSentinel; and Wisconsin and Minnesota polls by The New York Times, MinnPost, and the Green Bay Press Gazette, among others. 

More Americans approve than disapprove of Joe Biden’s choice of Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, with rising enthusiasm among Biden supporters in the run up to the Democratic National Convention. It’s been picked up by The New York Times, CNN, Vox, The Los Angeles Times, The Hill, The Week, the Baltimore Sun, The Wichita Eagle, and the Missoula Current.

Among other activities, check out Gary Langer’s advice on how to better understand political polls on the WGBH Forum Network here. He’s joined by guest speakers Wilnelia Rivera, president at Rivera Consulting, Inc.; and James Pindell, political reporter at The Boston Globe.

Six in 10 Americans disapprove of how Donald Trump is handling the coronavirus outbreak in our latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, with coverage, beyond ABC and the Post, by The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle, Newsweek, The Guardian, and The Week. The poll also found majority support for the Black Lives Matter movement and advantages for Joe Biden over Trump in trust to handle the coronavirus pandemic and in vote preference overall, with additional reporting by The New York Times, CNN, Politico, Bloomberg, Axios, Forbes, The Hill (here and here), and USA Today.

See also our recent evaluation of long-term trends in the rising association of ideology and political partisanship.