| What H1N1 Swine flu? Majority of Californians
Will Ignore The Late Vaccine
A new poll confirms that the Obama administration and federal health
officials have failed to convince Americans -- at least those in
the most populous state of California -- of the seriousness of a
H1N1 swine flu pandemic.
A majority of those registered voters polled
by a new survey team involving The Times and the University
of Southern California said they believed the new, delayed vaccine
was safe.
But a majority also said they had no intention of getting it.
The findings come from a new Los Angeles Times/University of
Southern California College of Letters, Arts & Sciences Poll.
The survey, which interviewed 1,500 registered voters from Oct.
27 through Nov. 3, was conducted for The Times and USC by two
nationally prominent polling firms, the Democratic firm Greenberg
Quinlan Rosner and the Republican firm Public Opinion Strategies.
Today's results have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage
points.
Only 5% of those polled said they had already been vaccinated.
Of the rest, 52% said they didn't plan to get vaccinated. Of the
40% who said they wanted the vaccine, 12% said they already had
attempted to find it but couldn't.
Of those polled, 70% said they think the H1N1 vaccine is safe
for most people, and only 17% said there was a strong chance the
vaccine is unsafe.
Last month the Obama administration declared a national emergency
over the H1N1 pandemic, but the government program has come under
fire for long delays in deliveries of the vaccine.
Rep. Ron Paul has even called the federal program a "total
failure." Obama officials, who are overseeing the vaccine
distribution, have blamed the delays on manufacturers.
A previous national poll, as
The Ticket reported here, found a large majority of Americans
also intended to skip the recommended medical action.
Reference Sources 130
November 7, 2009
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