Poll: Unvaccinated Americans least concerned about Delta variant

The U.S. reported 31,281 new cases, 22,080 hospitalizations and 272 deaths on Saturday, according to the New York Times Covid tracker. A large chunk of the new cases are coming from five states: Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri and Nevada.

President Joe Biden said Friday that the “only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated,” echoing comments made by Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Among the unvaccinated polled by CBS, 53 percent said they don’t want a shot because they are worried about the side effects. Fifty percent cited not trusting the government as one of their reasons, and 45 percent said they don’t trust the science.

Overall, 66 percent of Americans gave Biden a strong mark for his handling of the pandemic. Fifty-two percent think the Biden administration’s focus on vaccination efforts in the U.S. is “about right,” though 57 percent of Republicans said the president is doing “too much” in trying to urge Americans to get the shots.

The poll of 2,238 U.S. adults was conducted by YouGov from July 14-17. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.