COVID: 'I Think The Overall Trend Is Good'; Resistance To COVID Vaccinations Waning
GREENBRAE (CBS SF) -- Each week, as more shipments arrive in the Bay Area, more residents are getting the COVID vaccine shot, but some new national surveys indicate the willingness of people getting inoculated isn't at the level that's needed for herd immunity.
Like many other states, California has received a lot fewer doses than first anticipated for hospital workers. This comes as some highly-publicized polls show there's still some convincing to do to get enough people on board.
Nearly 2 million Americans have received shots in the arms with the COVID vaccine.
"I felt like I could finally take a deep breath, for the first time since March, it was just such a relief," said Zuckerberg SF General Hospital registered nurse Valerie Alexander.
Alexander just got inoculated over the weekend.
"I can understand that maybe if there are people out there that are not in the science community and you're not looking at the data the same way, that maybe they are a little hesitant," said Alexander.
New polls from Gallop, Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Pew Research Center show people saying they are likely or certain to take the vaccine, have grown from about 50% this summer to now 60%.
"I think the overall trend is good. I think it took a dip around the summer, because of the Influence of politics on the messaging of the vaccine," said UCSF School of Medicine Professor and Infectious disease physician Dr. Peter Chin-Hong.
But those latest numbers are still well short of the 70% vaccination threshold or higher, which many health experts say is necessary for herd immunity to be reached.
"People get motivated for a few reasons. The first is, if they know somebody who's personally gotten the vaccine or if they've seen public figures get the vaccine themselves," said Hong.
State officials have said California is receiving 40% fewer doses than initially anticipated but expect hundreds of thousands more each week, now that 2 vaccines have been granted Emergency Use Authorization.
In his latest briefing, Governor Gavin Newsom said more than 70,000 Californians have been vaccinated. The state plans to update those inoculation numbers regularly on its COVID-19 dashboard.
