Vaccine manufacturers have a lot riding on the mass vaccination campaigns being rolled out around the globe. And not the least of their worries is the level of resistance health officials will face as they start inoculating people.
CBS went back and analyzed some of the recent U.S. polls and found that only about half of the people who were surveyed said that they expected to get a swine flu shot. That actually is quite consistent with historical levels of acceptance. Back in 1976, when a campaign against a different swine flu strain provoked a debacle, only 53 percent of adults told Gallup that they expected to get vaccinated.
And there is strong evidence to suggest that the actual number of people vaccinated won't get close to half of the population. Back in 1977, only 38 percent of adults told Harris pollsters that they actually got a shot. That's right in line with the percentage of the population who said they were vaccinated or had received a flu shot in 2006. Biggest reason for not getting vaccinated: not really necessary. Second most cited reason: vaccines do more harm than good. If those numbers hold true this year, epidemiologists are predicting that swine flu will hit millions of people.
- check out the report from CBS