Arkansas governor expects vaccine acceptance to increase as rollout continues
Washington — As new polling shows that many Republicans are hesitant about getting COVID-19 vaccines, GOP Governor Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas said he expects that reluctance to dissipate as more Americans get their shots in the coming weeks.
"We are seeing that problem and the poll numbers are troubling, because in Arkansas, it's a very pro-Trump state, in terms of the last election. And so we see that resistance," Hutchinson said Sunday on "Face the Nation." "But as more and more people get the vaccine, they see it's a way to get back to more normal life. They're excited about it. They're optimistic. So, I see those numbers changing."
A new CBS News poll shows that self-identified Republicans are the most likely political group to say they won't receive the vaccine, with 33% saying they won't. Republicans who say they'll refuse the vaccine are also particularly likely to say they don't trust the government.
Hutchinson said the state will fall short of reaching the threshold of vaccinations needed for herd immunity if residents decline to get their shots. He encouraged his constituents to get their vaccines as soon as they're eligible.
"Sometimes someone will not take the vaccine, saying, 'I just want to wait a little bit longer to make sure everything's OK.' We're encouraging them not to do that. When it's your turn, take the vaccine," he said. "But at the same time, we're going to move through the eligibility and then we're going to have to come back and catch up because we'll probably be at a 50% rate. We need to get up to 70 to 80% acceptance rate to increase the immunization of the vaccine."
The poll also showed vaccine hesitancy among Republicans differs by age. A majority of Republicans over the age of 65 report having already been vaccinated, while those under 45 express the most resistance to the vaccine.
Black and Hispanic Americans are now as likely as White Americans to say they will get the vaccine, a change from last winter when polls showed that people of color were more reluctant to receive the shot.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. has administered more 105 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Saturday. Arkansas currently ranks 46th among states in doses administered by population, with 29,247 doses given per 100,000 residents.
On Friday, Hutchinson announced that the state might do away with its mask mandate by the end of the month if COVID-19 figures continued on a downward trend. He defended that move on Sunday, saying the time "for heavy-handed restrictions and mandates are going by the wayside, so people can make good judgments."
"We need to continue to wear a mask, socially distance until we get the vaccine widely accepted, but you can do that two ways. One is by a mandate or you can do it by public common sense," said Hutchinson. "And so I didn't want to have a jump off the bridge in one moment, so we have a ramp in which we want to see what our testing, our cases look like, our hospitalizations, positivity rate look like toward the end of the month."