CNBC poll shows very little will persuade unvaccinated Americans to

Americans who are unvaccinated against Covid-19 are largely driven by a mistrust of the government and fears over vaccine side effects, and there is very little that can be done to persuade them to get the shots, a new CNBC/Change Research poll reveals.

Change Research surveyed 1,775 respondents for CNBC from Aug. 30 to Sept. 2 about Americans’ views on Covid vaccines, President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump and other issues.

Among the 29% of U.S. voters who are unvaccinated, 83% say they do not plan to get the lifesaving shots, the survey shows. A frustrated Biden on Thursday outlined a host of new vaccine and testing mandates for federal workers and contractors as well as health-care and private company employees.

“What more is there to wait for? What more do you need to see? We’ve made vaccinations free, safe and convenient. The vaccine has FDA approval, over 200 million Americans have gotten at least one shot,” Biden said. “We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin, and the refusal has cost all of us. So please do the right thing.”

Of the unvaccinated respondents, 84% said their decision against immunization wouldn’t change if the vaccines had no side effects and 87% said they still wouldn’t get the shots if their employer mandated them. Just 5% and 4% of respondents, respectively, said those things would make them “much more likely” to change their minds, the survey shows. Pressure from family members made little difference, with just 2% saying that would make them much more likely to get the shots.

Growing vaccine hesitancy could make it difficult to reach the up to 90% vaccination rate that some health officials have suggested is necessary to achieve nationwide herd immunity to Covid.

“It’s time for people to understand that there’s no herd immunity in sight that is going to allow this virus to go away and not come back,” Dr. Bruce Farber, chief of infectious disease at Northwell Health in New York, told CNBC in a Sept. 1 interview. “And we are going to be living with this virus just the way we live with influenza for the foreseeable future.”

Some 34% of unvaccinated respondents said they were hesitant to get the shots because they didn’t trust the federal government, while another 34% were worried about the vaccine’s side effects. Less than 10% of unvaccinated respondents said they would be more likely to get vaccinated if the delta variant were more problematic in their community, and 7% said they would get vaccinated if asked by Trump.

“There does appear to be something specific to COVID-19 at work as well, because 56% of the unvaccinated report having received a flu shot in the past,” the poll said.

The divide between the vaccinated and unvaccinated was especially apparent along political lines, with 60% of Republicans and 87% of…