President Joe Biden delivered an update on the nation’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and specifically the new Omicron variant, from the National Institutes of Health on Thursday, and touted a recent poll showing that the emergence of the new variant was making unvaccinated Americans more willing to get the shot.
The Omicron (B.1.1.529) SARS-CoV-2 variant was first reported to the World Health Organization by South Africa in late November, and designated as a “variant of concern” (VOC) by WHO two days later. On Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the first documented Omicron variant case occurring in the U.S. with a patient in California.
Near the beginning of his remarks, Biden mentioned that as he left the White House to travel to the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland, he had been talking with “one of [his] folks who does polling and national strategy” who had told him about a poll that asked Americans for their reactions to the new Omicron variant.
The president declined to identify the poll because he wasn’t completely positive of the details, but noted that it was his understanding that 30 percent of the unvaccinated who had previously said “under no circumstances” would they get vaccinated, are now saying they will, “because of the new variant.”
“We hope that’s true,” said Biden. “I hope that’s true.”
Biden
Unvaccinated adults were more likely than vaccinated people to say that concern about Omicron was “overblown,” a post on Morning Consult’s website sharing the poll results stated. However, the new variant was also lowering their resistance to getting vaccinated:
Despite their lower level of concern overall, 30 percent of unvaccinated adults said that given the identification of the omicron variant, they’d consider getting a COVID-19 vaccine. That share was higher among unvaccinated adults who also said they are worried about the omicron variant, with 48 percent saying they’d consider getting the shot.
The polling crosstabs break this result down further, noting that among unvaccinated respondents, 11 percent said the Omicron variant meant that they would “yes, definitely” get vaccinated now, 19 percent said “yes, probably” they would get vaccinated, 28 percent said “no, probably,” and 42 percent said “no, probably not.”
That’s not precisely how Biden described the poll his adviser mentioned to him — he framed it as 30 percent of unvaccinated Americans who had previously said they were certain they would not get vaccinated, and this poll found
Like other recent polls, this one also showed a partisan divide among those who voted for Biden or identify as Democrats being more likely to get vaccinated than those who voted for former President Donald Trump or who identify as Republicans.
Watch the video above, via CNN.