49 percent of GOP men say they won’t get vaccinated in a PBS poll

Nearly half of U.S. men who identify as Republicans said they have no plans to get the coronavirus vaccine, according to a new PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll released Thursday.

The study, which surveyed 1,227 U.S. adults from March 3 to March 8, found that approximately 30 percent of Americans overall said they do not plan on getting vaccinated.

The poll found a higher amount of opposition among Republicans, with 41 percent saying they would not get one of the three federally approved coronavirus vaccines and 49 percent of Republican men saying the same. Fifty percent of GOP men said they would get the vaccine or had already got it. One percent was unsure.

Comparatively, about 87 percent of Democrats included in the survey said they planned on getting the COVID-19 vaccine or had already received it.

Among Republicans overall, 56 percent said they would get the vaccine or already had got the vaccine.

The hesitancy toward getting a vaccine may provide an obstacle to combating the virus nationally as the Biden administration attempts to ramp up vaccine distribution across the country, including through funding to state and local government through the sweeping $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill that President Biden signed into law Thursday afternoon.