Who Are the Unvaccinated in America? There’s No One Answer.

Americans cite a range of reasons for not getting a Covid-19 vaccine.

As coronavirus cases rise across the United States, the fight against the pandemic is focused on an estimated 93 million people who are eligible for shots but have chosen not to get them.

In one group are those who say they are adamant in their refusal of the coronavirus vaccines; they include a mix of people but tend to be disproportionately white, rural, evangelical Christian and politically conservative, surveys show.

With cases surging and hospitalizations rising, health officials are making progress in inoculating this second group, who surveys suggest account for less than half of all unvaccinated adults in the United States.

Steven Harris, 58, who said he believes that the antibodies he has from getting Covid-19 are sufficiently protective.

Interviews this past week with dozens of people in 17 states presented a portrait of the unvaccinated in the United States, people driven by a wide mix of sometimes overlapping fears, conspiracy theories, concern about safety and generalized skepticism of powerful institutions tied to the vaccines, including the pharmaceutical industry and the federal government.

She says her Christian faith has also made her comfortable with not yet getting a Covid-19 shot, which she thinks is too new, the conversation around it too noisy and bombastic.

He said he did not worry about infecting his unvaccinated 86-year-old grandmother, either.

About 30 percent of the adult population in the United States has yet to receive a shot, and about 58 percent of those age 12 through 17 have yet to receive a shot.

Part of the challenge is that the unvaccinated live in communities dotted throughout the United States, in both lightly and densely populated counties.

Though some states like Missouri and Arkansas have significantly lagged the nation in vaccination rates, unvaccinated Americans are, to varying degrees, everywhere: In Cook County, Ill., which includes Chicago, 51 percent of residents are fully vaccinated.

Nationwide, about 97 percent of people hospitalized with Covid-19 are unvaccinated, federal data shows.

Some experts have estimated that 90 percent or more of the total population — adults and children — would need to be fully vaccinated for the country to reach a possibly elusive herd immunity threshold of protection against the coronavirus.

They make up 15 percent of the total population in the United States.

data, which captures race and ethnicity for about 60 percent of vaccine recipients.

approves the vaccines, she said she and her husband will feel somewhat less apprehensive but will continue to do their own research and pray.

Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, Native Americans and Alaskan Natives, who make up a smaller proportion of the overall population, have surpassed other groups in total percentage vaccinated, but still include large numbers of unvaccinated people.

Figuring out exactly who is not vaccinated is more complicated; federal authorities have mainly tracked the people getting shots — not those who have not gotten them.

Drew, who voted for President Biden but is unaffiliated with a political party, said she was learning all she could about the risks that the coronavirus carries, and how a vaccine could protect her from getting critically ill.

“It’s gone from ‘We aren’t getting it’ to ‘OK, if I get more information I’m going to get it,” she said of the shot.

In one Kaiser survey, 44 percent said they would be more likely to get a vaccine once it is fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Currently, the three coronavirus vaccines being offered in the United States have only been granted an emergency use authorization, a step short of full approval.

Lakeshia Drew, 41, who said she recently changed her mind about getting a vaccine.

But some residents say they were turned away by the health care workers administering the vaccines because they did not have government-issued IDs — although officials have said that only proof of age should be required.

“For the undocumented, their fears are not the vaccine but the record keeping that goes along with it,” said Dr.

She also had Covid-19 and said she believes that the pandemic was not the crisis others said it was.

To the contrary: He takes it as further evidence, he said, that the vaccines are a government plot.

They are far less concerned about getting seriously ill with Covid-19, and much more likely to say they do not trust the government or the pharmaceutical companies that have developed the shots.

Angelique White, 28, who said she and her twin sister experienced bad reactions to a flu vaccine as teenagers.

People who say they will never get a Covid-19 vaccine are disproportionately likely to be white and to live in rural areas.

“The United States government’s main job is to protect me from foreign and domestic enemies

The United States government’s main job is to protect me from foreign and domestic enemies

Pete Sims, 82, who said he definitely will not get a vaccine

Angelique White, 28, a hairstylist in Romulus, Mich., is firm in her decision not to be vaccinated, despite pressure from her boyfriend to get the shot

White, who is a Jehovah’s Witness and does not vote, had several cousins who died from Covid-19

White said