Adults 50 and up have been considered a high-risk group for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic because they are more likely to develop severe illness as a result of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

People 65 and older are at greatest risk. Eighty percent of COVID-19 deaths since the beginning of the outbreak have taken place among the 65+ age group according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Many seniors are unsure if or when they will get the vaccine when one becomes available. A public buy-in on the safety and effectiveness of any COVID-19 vaccine will be key to ending the pandemic.

Experts agree that older adults should be prioritized for vaccination once new vaccines come to market. It is not clear how many older adults will decide to be vaccinated, however. A University of Michigan poll of over 2000 older Americans’ attitudes about the COVID-19 vaccine found that many are unsure if or when they will get the vaccine when one becomes available.

The adults surveyed, all between the ages of 50 and 80, were somewhat ambivalent in their perceptions of the vaccine. Overall, 58 percent responded that they were “somewhat likely” or “very likely” to get vaccinated for COVID-19. When asked a different way, two out of three respondents (66 percent) indicated that they would be likely to get the vaccine, but two thirds of this group — 46 percent of the total participant sample — said that they would prefer to wait until others had been vaccinated before doing so themselves.

The overall inclination among the adults taking UM’s National Poll on Healthy Aging seems to be that while they want the vaccine when it becomes available, many have concerns about the vaccine’s safety and prefer to take a “wait and see” approach to better understand the vaccine’s impact before deciding to seek it out for themselves.

A Distinct Split in Attitudes
A public buy-in on the safety and effectiveness of any COVID-19 vaccine will be key to ending the pandemic. This is why understanding the perceptions and concerns of high-risk groups like older adults is crucial to the successful rollout of new COVID treatment and prevention options.

The poll’s data reveal a distinct split in attitudes about the COVID vaccine along social, class, race and gender. Older women, people of color and individuals with lower income and education levels were all less likely to report that they planned to seek vaccination for COVID-19.

The findings may reflect the fact that, at times, medicine has been advanced on the backs of marginalized groups. The Tuskeegee Syphilis Experiment, the development of the birth control pill in Puerto Rico and the advances in modern obstetrics/gynecology ushered in by medical interventions forced upon three enslaved women at the hands of Dr. Marion Sims are examples of the kind of unethical medical interventions that have led to distrust and skepticism of medicine among certain sectors of society.

Those who may have lived part of this history themselves, or be just one generation removed from it, are unlikely to welcome new medical interventions like the COVID-19 vaccines unquestioningly. These cultural and historical biases may affect the entire trajectory of pandemic recovery.

Older women, people of color and individuals with lower income and education levels were all less likely to report that they planned to seek vaccination for COVID-19.

Sound science explains how the new COVID vaccines have been developed so quickly while still being safe, but messaging and communications about the pandemic, and even mask use, have often been confusing and contradictory.

When it comes to communicating the benefits of getting the COVID vaccine to those who are more likely to resist and mistrust the medical industry, health professionals must contend not only with rapidly evolving information, but with false claims and misleading misinformation.

Hopefully, as clinical trials of the three vaccines available from Pfizer, Moderna and the University of Oxford proceed, more and more seniors, people of color and others in historically disenfranchised groups will overcome their vaccine hesitancy.

More information on this study can be found at the University of Michigan’s National Poll on Healthy Aging.