SEATTLE — An exclusive KING 5 News poll suggests half of Washingtonians think the state could be doing more to vaccinate the public for COVID-19, but more than a quarter of unvaccinated residents still don’t plan to get the vaccine.
The survey found 50% of polled adults thought Washington could be doing more to get vaccines out while 30% said the state was doing all it could.
Washington has been vaccinating people in the first two phases of its vaccine distribution plan since mid-January, which includes health care workers, people over 65 and people over 50 in multigenerational households. On average, the state is vaccinating 26,857 people per week, according to data from the Washington State Department of Health (DOH). Although this average has increased over the last few weeks, it’s still short of the state’s goal of 45,000 weekly vaccinations.
State officials have blamed the slow rollout on meager vaccine supply, saying the demand is much higher than the federal government is able to meet. For the week of Feb. 15, Washington requested 446,850 COVID-19 vaccine doses but will only receive 206,125 doses, according to DOH.
Even when supply does catch up, the survey suggests a sizeable population may not get vaccinated. The poll found 26% of unvaccinated adults who were surveyed don’t plan to get the COVID-19 vaccine, and another 18% aren’t sure yet. About 56% of surveyed adults do plan to be vaccinated.
A majority of surveyed adults – 61% – said they would know how to get the vaccine if they wanted while 24% would not.
The survey also suggests about half of Washingtonians – 52% – think the state government responded appropriately to the pandemic while 23% thought officials overreacted and 19% thought the reaction was inadequate.
Approval of the state government’s response to coronavirus has lessened as the pandemic draws on. A KING 5 News poll in March found 72% of respondents thought the state response was appropriate compared to 59% in a July survey.
When grading the response in this most recent poll, about a third of residents gave the state’s efforts a B, and another quarter gave it a C. Just 16% awarded the state an A.
The poll, which was conducted by SurveyUSA, surveyed 650 adults from Feb. 8-9, 2021. The poll represented the demographics of Washington state with 51% from the metro Seattle area, 30% from western Washington and 19% from eastern Washington.
