Stop Covid-19 vaccine ‘finger wagging,’ says top US health official

An NBC News poll released Sunday showed that 82% of Democrats had already been vaccinated or plan to be as soon as possible, against 45% of Republicans.

The US political divide on whether to get the coronavirus vaccine suggests that “maybe there’s been too much finger wagging,” according to the head of the National Institutes of Health.

Almost one-quarter of Republicans said they won’t get vaccinated. (Reuters File Photo )

“I’ve done some of that; I’m going to try to stop,” NIH Director Francis Collins said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

An NBC News poll released Sunday showed that 82% of Democrats had already been vaccinated or plan to be as soon as possible, against 45% of Republicans.

Almost one-quarter of Republicans said they won’t get vaccinated and another 10% said they’ll do so only if required. That hesistancy has been seen as a roadblock to the US achieving herd immunity against Covid 19.

Collins said some parts of the country are getting close to the 75% or 80% level of those with immunity, when vaccinations are combined with people who have had Covid-19, which also provides immunity.