LADL: Nationwide Poll on COVID Vaccine - Voto Latino Foundation

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LADL: Nationwide Poll on COVID Vaccine


Key Findings

A poll from Change Research of 1,896 voters nationwide, including 947 Latinx voters from March 19-25, 2021 conducted in English and Spanish shows:

Among Latinx respondents who have not yet been vaccinated: a combined majority say they will either not take the vaccine or are not sure they will take the vaccine. Specifically, 27% say they will not take the vaccine, and 24% are not sure if they will take the vaccine. Among Latinx respondents who are unsure if they will take the vaccine:

  • 72% know someone in their household or community who is unwilling to take the vaccine because they believe it will be harmful to them
  • 78% are under 50
  • 24% have a high school education, or less. Only 14% are college-educated
  • 46% either speak both English and Spanish, or only Spanish, at home

    • The most common reason respondents give for not wanting to get vaccinated, or being unsure about getting vaccinated, is fear that the vaccine is not safe. 51% of Latinx respondents do not trust the vaccine offered to them will be safe. Among Latinx respondents whose primary language at home is Spanish, 67% do not trust that the vaccine offered to them will be safe. The other most commonly selected reasons are fear that the vaccine offered to them will not be effective (39%) and not trusting the companies that manufacture the vaccines (32%).

    60% of Latinx respondents know someone in their household or community who is unwilling to take the vaccine because they believe it will be harmful to them.

    37% of Latinx respondents have seen material or information that makes them think the COVID-19 vaccine is not very safe or not very effective. The main source of this information is Facebook: 49% say this is where they saw the material. The second most common source of this information is local news (39%).

    49% of Latinx respondents think COVID misinformation is a very serious problem. Another 29% think this is a somewhat serious problem. 20% of Latinx respondents have had wrong or harmful information about the COVID vaccine shared directly with them, and Facebook and messaging apps are the top reported platforms for misinformation about the vaccine. 53% say they received this information from Facebook, and 44% from messaging apps. There are some differences by language. Among Latinx respondents whose primary language spoken at home is English, the most common source was Facebook (59%). Among Latinx respondents whose primary language spoken at home is Spanish, 66% say the wrong or harmful information about the vaccine was shared with them through messaging apps.

    METHODOLOGY

    Change Research surveyed 1,896 voters nationwide, including 947 Latinx voters, from March 19-25. We used some or all of the following sources to recruit respondents:

    • targeted advertisements on Facebook
    • targeted advertisements on Instagram
    • targeted advertisements on individual websites via Google and/or Facebook’s ad platform
    • the Lucid sample aggregator, which recruits respondents from dozens of different online panels. All members of these panels are admitted to our survey
      based on qualification in a pre-screening survey administered by Lucid.
    • text messages sent, via the echo19 platform, to cell phone numbers listed on the voter file for individuals who qualified for the survey’s sample universe, based on their voter file data

      • Regardless of which of these sources a respondent came from, they were directed to a survey hosted on SurveyMonkey’s website.

      Ads placed on social media targeted any person living in the United States. As the survey fielded, Change Research used dynamic online sampling: adjusting ad budgets, lowering budgets for ads targeting groups that were overrepresented and raising budgets for ads targeting groups that were underrepresented, so that the final sample was roughly representative of the population across different groups. The survey was conducted in English and Spanish.

      The survey was commissioned by Voto Latino, and conducted online by Change Research. Post-stratification was performed on gender, age range, race/ethnicity, education, and 2020 vote. Weighting parameters were estimated based on the electorates from the 2020 general election, obtained from the voter file. That is, if a given age bracket or gender group represented x% of the 2020 electorate, then that same group would be roughly weighted to x% in this survey.

      The modeled margin of error* for this survey is 2.77%, which uses effective sample sizes** that adjust for the design effect of weighting.
      * We adopt The Pew Research Center’s convention for the term “modeled margin of error”(1) (mMOE) to indicate that our surveys are not simple random samples in the pure sense, similar to any survey that has either non-response bias or for which the general population was not invited at random. A common, if imperfect, convention for reporting survey results is to use a single, survey-level mMOE based on a normal approximation. This is a poor approximation for proportion estimates close to 0 or 1. However, it is a useful communication tool in many settings and is reasonable in places where the proportion of interest is close to 50%. We report this normal approximation for our surveys assuming a proportion estimate of 50%.
      ** The effective sample size adjusts for the weighting applied to respondents, and is calculated using Kish’s approximation (2).
      (1) https://www.pewresearch.org/methods/2018/01/26/for-weighting-online-opt-in-samples-what-matters-most/
      (2) Kish, Leslie. Survey Sampling, 1965.

      For more information, contact Lauren Goldstein at lauren@changeresearch.com.

      LIST OF QUESTIONS

      1 Are you:
      Male
      Female

      2 In what year were you born? [TEXT BOX]

      3a In what ZIP code do you currently live? [TEXT BOX]

      3b In what state or territory do you live?

      4 What is your race? [multi-select enabled]
      White / Caucasian
      Hispanic or Latino/a
      Black or African American
      Asian / Pacific Islander
      American Indian or Alaska Native
      Other (please specify): [TEXT BOX]

      4b Are you from a Hispanic, Latino/a or Spanish-speaking background?
      Yes
      No

      5 What is the highest level of education you have completed?
      High school diploma or less
      Some college, but no degree
      Associate’s degree, or two-year college degree
      Bachelor’s degree, or four-year college degree
      Graduate degree

      6 Are you registered to vote in {state}?
      Yes
      No
      Not sure

      7a Generally speaking, do you think of yourself as a: [RANDOMIZE]
      Democrat
      Independent/Other
      Republican

      [IF INDEPENDENT/ NO PARTY AFFILIATION]
      7b Do you consider yourself closer to:
      The Democrats
      The Republicans]
      Neither

      [IF DEMOCRAT/ REPUBLICAN]
      7c Do you consider yourself a:
      Strong [Democrat/Republican]
      Not so strong [Democrat/Republican]

      8 What language do you speak most at home?
      English
      Spanish
      Both equally

      9 How did you vote in the 2020 election for President, or for some reason were you unable to vote?
      Joe Biden, the Democrat
      Donald Trump, the Republican
      Jo Jorgensen, the Libertarian
      Not registered/Too young/Ineligible
      Did not vote

      10 Do you know anyone in your household or community who is unwilling to take the vaccine because they believe it will be harmful to them?
      Yes
      No

      11 Have you already been vaccinated for COVID-19?
      Yes
      No

      12 [IF 11=NO] Do you plan to take the COVID vaccine when it becomes available to you?
      Yes
      No
      Not sure

      13 [FOLLOW UP ON NO/NOT SURE] Why do you not want to take the vaccine, or why are you unsure if you want to take it? Check all that apply.
      I am not worried about getting sick
      I do not trust that the vaccine offered to me will be safe
      I do not trust that the vaccine offered to me will be effective
      I do not trust the companies that make the vaccines
      I have a religious objection
      I have already had COVID

      14 Have you seen any material or information that makes you think the COVID-19 vaccine is not very safe or not very effective?
      Yes
      No

      15 [IF YES] Where did you get this information?
      Word of mouth
      Twitter
      Facebook
      Youtube
      Instagram
      Cable news
      Local news
      Messaging apps (SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, WeChat, etc)
      Other (specify)

      16 When it comes to news on COVID-19 and the vaccine, who do you turn to for accurate information?
      My family
      My friends
      My coworkers
      The CDC (Centers for Disease Control)
      The government
      The news sources I read and watch
      My primary healthcare provider

      17 Thinking about your community and your friends and family, do you think inaccurate information around COVID and vaccine safety is a very serious problem, somewhat serious problem, not too serious problem, or not a serious problem at all?
      Very serious problem
      Somewhat serious problem
      Not too serious problem
      Not a serious problem at all

      18 How do you get most of your news about national and local issues? Check all that apply. [RANDOMIZE]
      National Network Television news (ABC, NBC, CBS)
      CNN
      MSNBC
      FOX News
      Newsmax
      OAN
      National Public Radio (NPR)
      The New York Times
      The Washington Post
      The Wall Street Journal
      Local television
      Local newspaper(s)
      Local radio station(s)
      Spanish language TV
      Messaging apps (SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, WeChat, etc)
      Twitter
      Facebook
      Youtube
      Instagram
      Facebook
      Twitter
      Other online news sources