Safety, side effects, and political influences: Why COVID-19 vaccine supply could soon outpace demand

It appears many people are still concerned over the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine, so much so that the Kaiser Family Foundation predicts vaccine supply will soon outpace demand.

News 12 Staff

Apr 26, 2021, 9:42 AM

Updated 1,239 days ago

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It appears many people are still concerned over the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine, so much so that the Kaiser Family Foundation predicts vaccine supply will soon outpace demand.
Safety is just one concern, as well as side effects and political influences, but in order to reach the herd immunity marker, more people need to be lining up at vaccination sites.
One concern is the political divide. A poll by Monmouth University shows almost 45% of Republicans say they will likely never get a vaccine, compared to just 5% of Democrats.
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For the two dose vaccines of Pfizer and Moderna, some people might be worried about the second dose effects. According to the CDC, about 8% of people are skipping the second dose, and of course with the pause on Johnson & Johnson, there's some lingering hesitancy there.
But the CDC and FDA cleared it after the pause. Dr. Anthony Fauci addressed the concern, saying the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been examined and it’s safe.
“You know, we've had about 141 million people that received at least one dose of the vaccine, a very small portion of that, about eight million has been Johnson & Johnson,” says Dr. Fauci. “The rest have been the MRNAs from Pfizer and from Moderna. So, if anybody has any doubts about the safety of those other vaccines and including J & J, we can now say, you know, we take this very seriously. We've looked at it now. Let's get back and get people vaccinated.”
There’s a chance the 8% number could be behind. They don't factor in people who get a first dose at one clinic, and then their second dose somewhere else.