By Abdul-Hakim Shabazz & Andrew Weissert

A survey conducted by Indy Politics and ARW Strategies of registered voters in Marion County between August 13th and 23rd shows that among registered voters, self-reported vaccination rates are encouraging, and among those who haven’t yet received one, the recent full authorization from the FDA should help.

Among registered voters, 69% report being fully vaccinated and an additional 5% say they’ve received at least one shot so far.  It’s important to note that while official vaccination rates for Marion County place the number at 50%, this survey reflects just registered voters and not the overall population.

Among seniors, that rate is highest, with 86% of those over the age of 65 years, saying they’re fully vaccinated.  There is a disparity between White and African American voters, as 73% of White voters say they’re fully vaccinated, but just 59% of African American voters say they are, and 18% indicate they have no immediate plans to do so.

Concerns about side effects are the main deterrent for voters, with 30% indicating that as the reason for not getting the vaccine.  20% say they’re waiting on full FDA authorization and 17% say they don’t need a vaccine because they’ve been previously infected.  For African Americans, the biggest barrier is the concern for side effects, with 41% reporting this as their reason for skipping vaccination.

“The FDA’s recent announcement giving full approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is good news,” says Andrew Weissert of ARW Strategies. “One-in-five were waiting on full authorization and that barriers been crossed.  One would expect, or hope, to see a jump in vaccination rates locally.”

Abdul-Hakim Shabazz is the editor and publisher of IndyPolitics.Org.

Andrew  Weissert is the President of ARW Strategies. 

Methodology

This poll was conducted between August 13th and 23rd, 2021.  In all, 400 interviews were achieved among registered voters in Marion County, Indiana.  200 of these responses came from text message surveys to cell phones and 200 of these responses came from online surveys. The Margin of Error for this survey is +/- 4.9% at a Confidence Interval of 95%.