A new poll shows that more than 7 in 10 Virginians report they’d likely get the COVID-19 vaccine, and Arlington County is already working to get that number up.
The poll, which was conducted by Virginia Commonwealth University, is inspiring Arlington County to transition its “Complete Count” committee for the 2020 census into a “Complete Vaccination” committee.
“So, we can get those trusted partners that we developed for the census effort to be out there in the community,” Arlington County board member Christian Dorsey said at the Jan. 13 Metropolitan Washington County of Governments meeting.
“We can bridge language, cultural and maybe hesitance to vaccine barriers that might exist and not have it be on government — who may not necessarily be the best messenger,” he said.
Dorsey thinks the strategy could prove helpful throughout the D.C. region. The VCU poll shows there are demographic disparities to vaccine receptiveness.
Poll results released Thursday show more people are receptive to getting vaccinated now compared to a poll taken in September 2020, but there were higher number jumps for whites (+14% points) versus minorities (+8% points).
Other poll findings of people likely to get vaccinated:
- 80% of those with a college degree
- 82% of those with a family income over $100,000
Vaccine receptiveness based on where people live:
- 87% in Northern Virginia report being likely to get a COVID-19 shot
- 74% in South Central region
- 68% in the Tidewater region
- 53% in both the Northwest and West regions
You can find comprehensive poll results on the VCU website.
The cell phone and landline survey was conducted from Dec. 11 – 13 and involved 827 adults of diverse demographics of region, age, gender, Hispanic origin and education. The poll has a margin of error of 5.39 percentage points.
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Looking for more information? D.C., Maryland and Virginia are each releasing more data every day. Visit their official sites here: Virginia | Maryland | D.C.
