Poll: 12% of U.S. voters say abortion is their top voting issue

Kentucky Health News

About one in eight voters said in a national poll last month that abortion will be the most important issue influencing their votes this year, and most opposed the 16-week abortion ban that former president Donald Trump has reportedly discussed endorsing.

Most voters who say abortion is the most important issue to their vote say abortion should be legal in all cases. "This is a significant shift from elections prior to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, when abortion voters were largely those who identified as pro-life," says the Kaiser Family Foundation, which sponsored the poll.

Though the issue has become a major dividing line between the major political parties, 43% of Republicans say abortion should be legal in most or all cases. However, "Few Republicans who want abortion to be legal seem ready to buck their party over the abortion issue," the foundation says.

Asked about a national 16-week abortion ban, 58% of voters oppose it; 63% of Republicans favor it.

Kentucky has both a six-week abortion ban and a law that bans all abortions except those needed to save the woman's life or prevent serious, permanent damage to a life-sustaining organ.

The national poll found Americans largely supportive of abortion rights. Examples include:

• 66% support a federal guarantee of abortion rights.
• 86% of adults, including large majorities of Democrats, independents, and Republicans, said they would allow abortion in pregnancy-related emergencies such as miscarriages.
• More tahn 60% oppose making it a crime for health-care providers to mail abortion pills to patients in states where abortion is prohibited, and policies that prohibit clinics that receive federal funds from providing abortions or referring patients to abortion providers.

Asked how they think about abortion, most said it is an issue of individual rights and freedoms (81%), a health-care issue (68%) and a moral issue (62%). Only 41% see it as a religious issue, but 41%of Republicans do.

"Many voters, especially Democrats, see the 2024 election as a high-stakes election for determining the future of access to abortion and contraception," the pollsters said. Half of voters say they think the elections for president, Congress, and state legislatures will have a 'major impact' on access to abortion." That view is driven by Democratic voters (about two-thirds) and those who say abortion is their most important voting issue (about 70%).

The poll was conducted Feb. 20-28, online and by telephone among a nationally representative sample of 1,316 U.S. adults, including 1,072 registered voters. Interviews were conducted in English and in Spanish. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points for the full sample and 4 percentage points for the sample of registered voters. For results based on other subgroups, the margin of sampling error may be higher.

Most Kentucky adults favor requiring licenses to sell tobacco and vape products, and revoking licenses of repeat sellers to minors

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

Most Kentucky adults support the idea of licensing retail stores to sell tobacco and electronic-cigarette products, and revoking the licenses of repeat offenders who sell the products to minors, according to a Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky poll taken Jan. 18-23.

Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky graphics; to enlarge any image, click on it.

Asked if they support or oppose requiring retailers that sell tobacco to be licensed, more than two-thirds of (69%) said they support the idea, 25% said they opposed it, and 6% said they were undecided. 

The question posed to them was, "Currently, tobacco retailers do not need a license to sell tobacco and vape products in Kentucky, but requiring such a license would be a way to make sure they are following and enforcing all the laws, including underage sales. Knowing this, do you support or oppose requiring retailers that sell tobacco to be licensed?" 

Then they were asked,  "If a licensed retailer were found to have repeatedly violated state law by selling tobacco and vape products to kids, would you support or oppose the revocation of their license?"

To this question, 86% of the respondents said they would support such licenses being revoked; 11% said they would oppose it; and 3% were undecided. 

The poll report said,  "Data shows licensing requirements for tobacco products reduces youth tobacco-initiation rates, usage of tobacco and electronic products, and allow cities to monitor compliance with tobacco control laws."

2023 National Youth Tobacco Survey graphic, depicting national data

The 2023 National Youth Tobacco Survey, released Nov. 3, shows that the nationwide effort to decrease youth tobacco and vaping rates is making some progress.

"Among U.S. high-school students, current overall tobacco-product use declined during 2022-23 (16.5% to 12.6%)," the report said. "This decline was primarily driven by e-cigarettes (14.1% to 10.0%), which translates to 580,000 fewer high school students who currently used e-cigarettes in 2023. Among high school students, declines were also observed during 2022-2023 for cigars and overall combustible tobacco smoking, representing all-time lows."

Further, the survey found, "In 2023, 10.0% of high-school students and 4.6% of middle-school students used e-cigarettes during the past 30 days. From 2022 to 2023, a significant decline in current e-cigarette use occurred among high-school students . . . while no statistically significant change occurred among middle-school students," whose usage was much lower than that of high-school students, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.  

The NYTS report said, "Sustained public health monitoring with implementation of evidence-based tobacco control strategies, including effective youth interventions, media campaigns, Food and Drug Administration regulations, and other proven tobacco-prevention policies might further reduce youth tobacco-product use."

The latest tobacco-use data for Kentucky is from the 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey.  It found that 4.9% of the state's high-school students said they currently smoked cigarettes and 21.9% said they currently used electronic vapor products. Among middle schoolers, the report found 1.6% of them said they currently smoked cigarettes and 13.8% of them currently used an electronic vapor product.  

In such surveys, "current use" is considered having used a tobacco product on at least one day during the 30 days prior to the survey. 

The foundation's survey was conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy as part of a Kentucky poll. It surveyed a random sample of 625 registered Kentucky voters via landline and cell phone, giving it a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

11/6/23 Correction: The story incorrectly attributed the 2023 National Youth Tobacco Survey with a quote that correctly should have been attributed to the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky poll report: "Data shows licensing requirements for tobacco products reduces youth tobacco-initiation rates, usage of tobacco and electronic products, and allow cities to monitor compliance with tobacco control laws."

Amid misinformation, few adults put significant trust in any health institution or media to be accurate about health topics, poll finds

Many falsely believe that a dewormer can treat Covid-19.
(Photo by Dimas Ardian, Bloomberg, via Getty Images)

By Darius Tahir
KFF Health News

Around 3 in 10 Americans still believe ivermectin, a dewormer for animals, is an effective treatment for Covid-19. And few of them place significant trust in any form of news media or official institution to accurately convey information about health topics, from covid treatments and vaccines to reproductive health issues. So says a new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation, an independent source of health-policy research, polling and journalism.

The confusion about what’s true — and who’s telling the truth — is of critical importance to public health, experts in political science said. “Misinformation leads to lives being lost and health problems not being resolved,” Bob Blendon, a professor emeritus of public health at Harvard University, said in an interview. Blendon was not associated with the survey.

The KFF poll of 2,007 U.S. adults found that nearly a third said ivermectin was definitely or probably an effective treatment for Covid-19. It’s not. Numerous randomized controlled trials have found otherwise. But only 22% in the poll thought ivermectin was definitely ineffective.

A fifth of those polled thought it was definitely or probably true that the Covid-19 vaccine had killed more people than the virus itself. Under half, 47%, thought that claim was definitely false, which it is. And 30% of respondents thought parents should not be required to vaccinate their children against measles, mumps and rubella, which all states do.

The prevalence of vaccine misinformation is “alarming,” said Brendan Nyhan, a professor of government at Dartmouth College who has spent years studying the transmission of false information.

Lunna Lopes, a senior survey analyst at KFF and one of the poll’s authors, said the results show wide exposure to, but limited uptake of, false claims. “Just because they’re exposed to it doesn’t mean they’re buying into it,” she said. Still, the din of misinformation might leave the populace unsure what to believe. “You might be less trusting, and less likely to outright reject false information.”

The poll also found only grudging trust, at best, for media sources of all kinds and the federal government. The limited trust the survey recorded is colored by wide partisan gaps, noted Nyhan.

KFF Health News graph; for a larger version, click on it.

Respondents did not have “a lot” of trust in the information relayed by any news media institution. Just over a quarter had this high level of trust for local TV news, and that was the highest mark of the news media tested, which ran the ideological and stylistic gamut from MSNBC to The New York Times to Fox News and Newsmax. More people had just “a little” trust in each of these institutions.

For Blendon, the mildness of the trust is a problem. It suggests that “we are short” of trusted sources of news about health.

He said journalists and editors should consider that there’s “something about the way you’re presenting information that’s not seen as credible by viewers.” Seventy percent of those in the poll said news media don't do enough to limit the spread of health misinformation, and 69% said social-media companies weren't doing enough.

Blendon said the public conversation about these topics tends to focus on the often-extreme declarations and wild claims featured on social media and on corporate and government attempts to regulate the medium. 

While the poll shows Americans use social media quite frequently, they have very little faith in the health information they see there. No social media outlet enjoyed a double-digit percentage of respondents saying they had “a lot” of trust in it.

Even so, said Lopes, a significant slice of the public — about a quarter — turn to these platforms for health information and advice. “That stood out to us,” she said. Latinos and the young are especially likely to use the forums.

KFF Health News graph; for a larger version, click on it.

The picture is similarly bleak for official institutions. Around a quarter of respondents said they had “a great deal” of trust in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations. That dropped to a fifth when it came to the Food and Drug Administration. The Biden administration and Donald Trump lagged behind.

Asked about state and local public-health officials, 13% said they trusted them "a great deal" and 51% said "a fair amount, ranking their overall trust just behind the FDA and the CDC.

Those numbers, combined with the partisan gaps in trust, were especially discouraging for Nyhan. “They will be essential sources of information in future pandemics despite their errors and misjudgments during the pandemic,” he said of public-health institutions.

By far the most highly trusted source of health information? One’s own doctor. Forty-eight percent of respondents had a great deal of trust in their recommendations.

The survey, the KFF Health Misinformation Tracking Poll Pilot, was conducted May 23 through June 12, online and by telephone among a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults in English and Spanish.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF.

National poll finds online patient portals for children are underused

University of Michigan illustration

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

A national survey found that only 43% of parents have set up an online patient portal for their child and 41% said they had not been educated on when to use it.

"Given all the conveniences portals offer, it's surprising that over half of parents have not set one up for their child, most commonly because they don't see a need for it," Sarah J. Clark, co-director of the polling team, told HealthDay. "This report suggests many parents may not be aware of all the potential benefits of using a patient portal for children."

Patient portals are computer applications to facilitate communication between patients, parents and health-care providers.

The poll was taken by the C. S. Mott Children's Hospital at the University of Michigan. It was administered in February to a randomly selected, stratified group of 2,000 adults who were parents of at least one child living in their household. The poll's overall margin of error is plus or minus 1 percentage points, and up to 6 poimts for its subsamples.

The poll found that 59% of parents said their child's health-care provider gave them instructions or guidance on when to use the portal. Of that group, three-fourths said they felt "very satisfied" with their ability to communicate with their child's provider, compared to just over half of those who said they received no instruction. 

Of those who did not have a portal, 31% said they did not need one, 25% said they did not know it needed to be set up, 21% said it was not an option with their provider, 16% said they prefer other ways to communicate, 6% had privacy concerns and 3% had technical problems in getting it set up. 

Of those who had a portal, the top three uses were for scheduling appointments (57%), completing pre-visit forms (68%) and looking at their child's test results (65%). Other uses included telehealth visits, requesting records and forms for school, sports or camp, getting a prescription refilled and referrals. And, 34% of the parents used the portal to get advice about their child's illness, injury or symptoms.

One concern among parents reported in the poll was losing access to their child's health information as they age, with 74% of them wishing they had access to their child's health records until they turned 18. 

The poll found that 31% of parents of teens saw changes in their patient portal access, including the information and messages from their child that they could see.

Poll of rural Americans finds them more aware of, and more willing to discuss, opioid problems; 47% still see stigma

Morning Consult graph: 2017 and 2022 responses to question about access to care. Click to enlarge.

Rural Americans say they are more aware of, and more willing to talk about, the opioid problem in the nation and their communities than they were five years ago, according to an online poll of rural adults sponsored by the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Farmers Union.

Sixty percent said adults are more aware of the crisis than they were five years ago, and 77% said they would comfortable having a conversation about opioids, but 47% said there is stigma or shame associated with opioid abuse in their community.

Rural adults increasingly regard drug addiction as a disease. Asked if addiction to opioids is a disease or is due to a lack of will power or self-control, 57% said it's a disease and 21% said otherwise. In 2017, the numbers were 46% and 26%, respectively. Likewise, 78% said someone can accidentally or unintentionally get addicted to opioids; five years ago, 71% said that.

The poll found that more rural adults than five years ago believe there is a higher rate of opioid misuse in rural communities than in urban and suburban areas), and 48% said they know someone who is or has been addicted to opioids or prescription painkillers.

Asked if they had taken an opioid or prescription painkiller without a prescription, 5 percent said yes. The same percentage said they had abused opioids or prescription painkillers or been addicted to them. Asked how comfortable they would feel talking about that, 70% said they would feel very or somewhat comfortable discussing it with friends, 52% with siblings and 46% with parents. Beyond their immediate families, most said they would be not too comfortable, or not comfortable at all.

The margin of error for that subsample of 110 people is plus or minus 9.3 percentage points. The error margin for the whole sample of 2,010 rural adults is 2.2 percentage points. The poll was conducted online Oct. 6-13 by Morning Consult and the results were weighted to reflect gender, age, race, ethnicity, census region and education. The results are available from Farm Bureau here.

Farm Bureau and NFU, long rivals in representing farm interests, "have consistently worked to publicize and compile useful material to help address rural stress, mental health challenges and opioid misuse," they said in a press release. NFU President Rob Larew said, “We must continue to reduce the stigma to connect our loved ones with health care and treatment they may need. I thank AFBF for being a teammate on this project, and the survey results show what is possible when farm organizations work together.”

58% of Kentucky adults say the pandemic is over for them, and resistance among the unvaccinated to getting a shot is increasing

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

Four in seven Kentucky adults (57%) think the pandemic is over in the state and more than 80% say concerns about Covid-19 will not keep them from attending or hosting gatherings during the holiday season, according to a Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky poll taken from Oct. 29 to Dec. 4. 

"Kentuckians are, I think as a general matter, determined that this pandemic is over," Ben Chandler, president and CEO of the foundation, said Tuesday. "They're going to behave like it for the most part during the holidays."

Chandler said that's appropriate, if people are up-to-date on their Covid-19 and flu vaccinations, keeping their hands washed and staying home when they are sick. But the poll found that resistance among unvaccinated Kentuckians to getting vaccinated to protect them from the disease continues to increase.

Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky graph; click on it to enlarge.

The poll found that 59% of Kentucky adults said it is "not likely at all" that Covid-19 will prevent them from attending or hosting a small gathering with friends and family this holiday season and 22% said it is "not too likely" that Covid-19 will impact this decision. Only 4.4% said it is "very likely" and 12.5% said it is "somewhat likely" that Covid-19 will affect their decision to gather with others over the holidays. 

Being vaccinated didn't seem to matter when making the decision to attend or host a small holiday gathering, as 73% of those who were vaccinated with at least one booster, 86% of those who were  vaccinated with no boosters and 91% of those who were not vaccinated said they were either not likely at all or not too likely to let Covid-19 impact their decision to attend or host a small holiday gathering

Further, the poll found that more men (69%) than women (50.2%) said they were not likely at all to let Covid-19 prevent them attending or hosting a small holiday gathering.

Hanukkah begins Sunday, Dec. 18; Christmas is Sunday, Dec. 25, and Kwanzaa starts Dec. 26.

The poll was the latest edition of the Vaccines in Kentucky Poll, which the foundation has sponsored four times since February 2021.When asked if they thought the pandemic was over in Kentucky, 41.5% of the respondents said it was. That was an increase over the summer, when 31.7% said it was. 

The share of Kentucky adults who said the pandemic was not over decreased to 56.6% in the latest poll, down from 65.4% in the summer. 

And when asked if the pandemic was over as it pertains to their own lives, 58.1% of the respondents said it was, up from 53.3% in the summer poll. This rate was highest among Kentucky adults who were not vaccinated (80.1%), followed by those vaccinated but not boosted ( 61%) and those vaccinated with at least one booster (42.2%).  

Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky graph; click on it to enlarge.

The poll also found that nearly three-quarters of vaccinated Kentuckians (73%) were either "very likely" or "somewhat likely" to get an annual Covid-19 booster if that were recommended like annual flu shots are.

The groups of vaccinated Kentuckians most resistant to getting an annual Covid-19 booster in the future were those who live in suburban counties (37%) and those between the ages of 30 and 45 (39.5%), either saying they were either "not too likely" or "not likely at all" to receive an annual booster. 

In rural and urban counties, about 75% of Kentucky adults in these areas said they would be very or somewhat likely to get a booster if recommended.

Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky graph; click on it to enlarge.

Since the first Vaccines in Kentucky Poll was taken in February 2021, an increasing share of Kentucky adults have said that getting vaccinated is a personal choice, rather than part of everyone's responsibility to protect the health of others. That view rose to 65% in the latest poll, marginally more than the 63% found this summer. In February 2021, shortly after vaccines became available, polling showed a nearly even split on the question. (Each number in the statewide sample has an error margin of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.)

Generally, the less education Kentuckians have, the more likely they are to consider vaccination a personal choice, but even 58% of college graduates agreed with that statement. Among high-school graduates and people who have attended college but not graduated, the number was 66%; among those with less than a high-school education, it was 73%.

The belief that vaccination is a personal choice is also strong among rural Kentuckians, with 72% of them saying they agree with that statement and 27% of them saying getting vaccinated is everyone's responsibility to protect the health of others. In suburbs, the numbers were 66% and 32%, respectively; in cities, they were 57.5% and 41.8%.

People who rated their personal health as excellent or good were more likely to consider vaccination a personal choice than those who rated it good, fair or poor; the numbers for those two groups were 70% and  61%, respectively. 

The latest poll also found that the number of unvaccinated people in Kentucky who said they will "definitely not get the vaccine" has increased to 75.2% in the latest poll, up from 63.5% in the summer. 

The poll, which was funded by the foundation, was conducted by the University of Cincinnati's Institute for Policy Research. It surveyed a random sample of 855 Kentucky adults via landline and cell phones.

New group says its online survey finds 2/3 of Kentucky adults favor a national health plan, citing costs as their main reason

By Melissa Patrick

Kentucky Health News

Two-thirds of Kentucky adults favor a government health plan that would provide health insurance for everyone, according to an online survey by the Asclepius Initiative, a new Kentucky-based health-care advocacy group. Asclepius (Uh·sklee·pee·uhs) was the Greek god of medicine and healing.

Graph from Asclepius Initiative survey report; click on it to enlarge.

The Asclepius Initiative says 67% of the respondents to the survey said they "strongly favor" or "somewhat favor" a national government health plan, 23% of them either "somewhat oppose" or "strongly oppose" it, and 10% said they did not have a strong opinion about it.  

“The results of this survey clearly indicate there is a desire for systemic change in the current healthcare system,” said Dr. Susan Bornstein of Louisville, founder and CEO of Asclepius, a said in a news release.

Three-fourths of those surveyed feel health care is a basic human right, while 11% disagreed with this premise and 14% were neutral.

The survey, conducted online via Qualtrics software between April and May, asked 1,000 Kentucky adults about their attitudes and beliefs about the U.S. health-care delivery system and their willingness to entertain alternative financing models. The survey sample was matched to demographics: gender, race/ethnicity, urban/rural and insurance status (uninsured, insured through employer, Medicaid, Medicare, non-group).

Of those who said they supported a national health plan, the main reason was cost, with 61% of those respondents saying it would make health care more affordable and 39% of them saying it would not. 

Asked if they supported the idea because having everyone on the same plan would be more efficient for patients and providers, about half said it would and half said it would not. 

Only a fourth of national-plan supporters said it would make getting care less complicated, with three-fourths saying it would not. And only 35% said it would increase the quality of care, while 65% said it would not. 

Among those who said they oppose a national plan, the top three reasons were that they do not believe the government should run it (75%), that it would be too expensive (53%) and it would increase health-care costs worse (54%). Only 38% of this group thought a national plan would limit competition, and 34% worried that they would not be able to see their doctors. 

The survey also found that four in 10 Kentucky adults said they would make lifestyle changes if they did not have to worry about health coverage, including things like going back to school (15%), changing their job or starting a new career (20%), retiring (7%) or leaving a domestic situation (6%). 

Graph from Asclepius Initiative survey report; click on it to enlarge.

Medical costs also affect whether a person does the things necessary to take care of themselves, like going to the doctor or taking their medications. 

The survey found that as a result of medical costs: 59% of Kentuckians said they had avoided going to the doctor; 53% said they had skipped or stopped follow-up care; 43% said they skipped or stopped medication; 31% were unable to purchase food; and 10% declared bankruptcy.

Grouped by type of insurance, 62% of those on commercial plans said they had skipped or stopped medical care or medications due to cost, while 76% on Medicaid and 61% on Medicare said they had.

And when it came to skipping or stopping medical care or medications due to cost, more Kentuckians who lived in rural areas said they had (71%) compared to those who lived in metropolitan areas (61%). 

“This survey shows that problems exist among both urban and rural residents that prevent them from receiving basic ongoing health care,” said Dr. Kevin Pearce, a family physician and and Asclepius Initiative board member. “Providing proper care early can protect people from enormous medical bills and reduce the risk of suffering or disability from serious illness.”

The survey found that 25% of respondents spent more than $1,000 in out-of-pocket costs for health care in 2021 and 42% spent over $500. 

Bornstein said, “What this survey demonstrates is clear. We must start moving now toward a better way of taking care of all Americans. The Asclepius Initiative will be a driving force to encourage changes which make health care accessible for everyone.”

53% in statewide poll say the pandemic is over for them; 1/3 are unvaccinated; 1/3 of those say they could be moved to get a shot

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

Even as the share of Kentuckians testing positive for the coronavirus continues to rise, about a third of the state's adults believe the pandemic is over, and more than half believe it is over as it pertains to their own lives, according to a Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky poll taken June 4 through July 13.

What this means is that Kentuckians are back to living their normal everyday lives, despite the ongoing pandemic, foundation president and CEO Ben Chandler said at a news conference Tuesday. 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maps; click to enlarge.

"We have to remember to stay vigilant against the virus," Chandler said. "Research shows the best way to avoid severe illness and death is to stay up to date with vaccines and boosters. Other ways to keep on guard include staying home if you feel sick, and testing, wearing a mask in a big crowd and getting healthier by doing things like eating nutritious foods." 

One dose provides very little protection, experts say.

The poll found that 65.4% of Kentucky adults said they believed the pandemic was not yet over in Kentucky, 31.7 % said it was over and 3% said they didn't know. But when asked if the pandemic was over as it pertains to their own lives, 53.3% said it was, 44.7% said it was not, and 2% said they didn't know. 

In both cases, the share who said the pandemic was over was higher among men and younger age groups.

The pandemic is clearly not over. The state's latest weekly report showed a 6.8% increase in coronavirus cases last week, with 2,236 new cases per day. The positive-test rate, which does not include home tests, rose to 18.41%; hospitalizations increased; and 67 more deaths were attributed to the virus, the largest weekly total since 79 were reported in mid-May. Kentucky has the second highest infection rate in the nation, according to The New York Times. 

Good news and bad news

Chandler said the good news from this poll is that when unvaccinated Kentucky adults were asked if they would get a vaccination, about one-third of them appeared open to the possibility. 

Opinions of the unvaccinated; click on graph to enlarge it.

The bad news is that poll found that the number of unvaccinated Kentuckians who say they "definitely will not" get vaccinated is going up. The poll found that 63.5% of the unvaxed said they definitely will not, compared to 46.6% in August 2021 and 19% in February 2021. 

On the other hand, the poll found that 2.1% said they would get a shot as soon as possible; 18.7% said they were waiting to see how the vaccines worked for other people; and 15.6% said they would only get a shot if it was required for school, work or other activities. 

"We think these responses are encouraging," said Chandler. "This shows there are still movable people and we should continue educational efforts to increase confidence in the safety and efficacy of the vaccine and boosters." The reportedly persuadable unvaccinated are about 12% of the state population.

Chandler said focus groups, small-group discussions about current topics, have found Kentuckians want to discuss vaccination with their doctors and it's not too late to have those conversations. 

"We've been able to drill down on this point with some of our recent focus groups, and feel there's an opportunity to educate people about the risks from getting Covid-19, including severe illness and 'long Covid' symptoms, compared to the risks of side effects and benefits of the Covid-19 vaccines and boosters," he said. 

According to the state Department for Public Health, 34% of Kentuckians have not received a Covid-19 vaccine. That amounts to 1.5 million. If 36% of this unvaccinated group are still open to getting a shot, as Chandler suggests, that means about 550,000 Kentuckians could still be convinced to get it.

The poll found an increase in those who believe getting a Covid-19 vaccine is a personal choice and fewer saw it as a "part of everyone's responsibility to protect the health of the community." In February 2021, Kentuckians were split nearly equally on this issue, but the most recent poll shows 62.7%, believe it is a personal choice.

Confidence in the vaccines is dropping

The poll also found that among the unvaccinated, confidence in the vaccines' efficacy has lessened since the emergence of the Delta and Omicron variants and subvariants, with 76.4% of unvaccinated Kentucky adults doubting effectiveness of the vaccines, up from 65.7% in August 2021. 

Opinions of the unvaccinated; click on graph to enlarge it.

The most recent poll found that of the 76.4% of unvaccinated adults who doubted effectiveness of the vaccines, 45.6% said the vaccines are "not effective at all," 30.8% said they are "a little effective," 20.7% said they are moderately effective, 2.1% said they are very effective ad 0.8% said they didn't know.  

In August 2021, 43.8% of this group said the vaccines were "not effective at all" and 21.9% said they were only "a little effective." 

The poll also found real concern among Kentucky adults about the effectiveness of the vaccines and boosters against future strains of the coronavirus. Among the unvaccinated, 52.4% said a vaccine would not be "effective at all" against new strains, marginally higher than in August 2021. 

Among fully vaccinated adults, 75.7% said they felt booster shots would be "moderately effective" or "very effective" in protecting them, but only 63.8% said the booster shots would have the same levels of protection against new strains of the virus.

Chandler said this lack of confidence in the vaccines, especially when it comes to protecting against new variants, is one reason that it is hard to get unvaccinated Kentuckians vaccinated.

He said the foundation will use these insights to inform vaccine outreach and educational efforts. "We hope the information encourages health-care workers to continue talking with patients about the vaccine and boosters discussing those risks and benefits and dispelling misinformation," he said.  

The poll, which was funded by the foundation, was conducted by the University of Cincinnati Institute for Policy Research. It surveyed a random sample of 814 Kentucky adults via landline and cell phones and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points. 

Post-Roe, rural women would face more obstacles; retired health director says the issue is about men, women, sex and control

"Trigger laws" would make abortion in Kentucky and 12 other states illegal in almost all cases if Roe v. Wade is overturned. That would disproportionately affect rural women, who are more likely than their urban peers to be impoverished, less likely to have the time or money to drive long distances across state lines to obtain an abortion, and more likely to face stigma over the decision to end a pregnancy.

Abortion isn't often publicly discussed in rural areas, but it is widely felt, as indicated by a recent note to University of Kentucky journalism professor Al Cross, editor and publisher of Kentucky Health News, by Bertie Salyer, retired health director in Magoffin County:

Bertie Salyer

“As a former social worker, social work supervisor, college professor, and health department director, I feel very distraught. Old white Republican men telling all females of childbearing age that they better not have sex unless they can see themselves nine months away successfully having and supporting a family of at least two. Punish the woman, don’t allow her to have sex education in school, don’t give her birth control, don’t give her health care, don’t give her support or any services while pregnant and after birth; just tell her to only have sex for procreation because SHE alone is responsible. Her body must bear the consequences, the lifetime consequences of that weak moment, that rape, that incestuous attack, that failure to think ahead in what could have been a moment of passion. She suffers the societal impact, the disruption of her life through what could have been a lapse in judgement, a mistake, crime victimization. HE can sexually enjoy the moment and move on without a thought. What is fair, equal, and just about that? And don’t allow me the space to discuss the possible outcomes for the child, and the additional social problems for our society.”

Many who oppose abortion rights are just as passionate, saying that all life is sacred and that it begins at conception. Though the topic has been a divisive political football for decades, public sentiment hasn't changed much in the nearly 50 years since the Roe v. Wade decision. "According to Gallup, 21 percent of Americans thought abortion should be illegal in all circumstances in 1975, compared with 19 percent in 2021," Michael Scherer reports for The Washington Post. But in the 13 states with trigger laws, current sentiment is decidedly different: "43 percent of adults on average say abortion should be legal in most or all cases, while 52 percent say it should be illegal in most or all cases," Nate Cohn reports for The New York Times.

A 2014 poll in Kentucky by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center found that 57% of Kentucky adults thought abortion should be illegal in all or most all cases, while 36% said it should be legal in all or almost all cases. More than 90% of abortions are performed in the first trimester of pregnancy.

Rural Americans are the most likely to say the pandemic is over, and least likely to take precautions against it

The Atlantic/Leger poll was conducted Nov. 5-7. Click the image to enlarge or click here for the rest of the report.

Though the coronavirus remains entrenched in rural areas, rural Americans are more likely than their suburban or urban peers to have rejected or given up on social distancing, masking and/or vaccinations. "They feel, in short, that the pandemic is 'over,'" Olga Khazan reports for The Atlantic. According to a recent Atlantic/Leger poll, "people in rural areas are most likely to feel like things are 'back to normal' where they live—45 percent thought so, compared with 30 percent of urbanites and 36 percent of suburbanites. Rural Americans were also the least likely group to say they wished their neighbors would be more cautious about Covid-19."

Rural Americans were less likely than suburban or urban residents to say most adults they know are vaccinated against the coronavirus, and more likely to say they socialize indoors with unmasked friends, Khazan reports. State and community laws were more likely to foster rural Americans' attitudes: Only 27% of rural residents said they have to wear a mask to work, and rural schools and daycares were less likely to require kids to wear masks or require kids to stay home if they have Covid-19 symptoms.

"For a lot of people who aren’t wearing masks or getting vaccinated, they think that this has just been blown out of proportion, and that people are just too fearful and need to go about their lives," Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, told Khazan.

"Among the rural unvaccinated, this is a false sense of security. Covid is spreading rapidly in rural areas, which is worrisome because rural people tend to be older, poorer, and in worse health to begin with," Khazan reports. "If they do get sick, they have less access to hospitals—more than 100 rural hospitals have closed since 2013. The Covid-19 death rate in rural America is now twice the death rate in urban areas. And the longer that pockets of unvaccinated Americans remain, the greater the likelihood that new variants will take hold and spread elsewhere."

But, Khazan notes, policy makers may not have tried hard enough to understand rural Americans' viewpoints on the pandemic. And it's difficult for many rural counties to get accurate information, especially since many lack health departments and good local newspapers, she writes: "Of course they feel abandoned, and at this point, defiant."

'Unplug' from sources of misinformation, and treat unvaccinated with dignity and respect, Ky. health chief tells rural health leaders

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

If you're trying to persuade someone to get a Covid-19 vaccine, it's important to come from a place of "mutual regard and respect," state Health Commissioner Steven Stack told members of the Kentucky Rural Health Association at its annual conference Monday.

Misinformation is a big obstacle to vaccination, and Stack told the online meeting that the most important thing we can do to stop the spread of misinformation is to "unplug" from social media and make sure you are getting your information from a credible news source, and not an entertainer. 

Commissioner Steven Stack, M.D.

Stack, a physician, stressed that it doesn't matter whether a person lives in rural Appalachia or in urban Jefferson County, people don't like to have their community values and believes treated with disregard. An added challenge, he said, is that getting more Kentuckians vaccinated requires more than  presenting "just the science."

"If we don't find a way to meet folks in a place where they feel respected and treated with dignity and regard, it just feels like someone from a distance is lecturing to them and telling them what they must do -- and that doesn't work," he said. 

Further, he said the messenger needs to come from a trusted source in the community, and delivering the message may involve a two-step process: first, a safe space to normalize the vaccine and answer questions about it, followed by opportunities to get it.

Stack also said it's important to remember that people have many reasons for not getting vaccinated that go beyond their personal beliefs and ideology, including a lack of transportation, poor health literacy, or misinformation. 

"Misinformation literally is a killer," he said. "What people see on Facebook and TikTok and Instagram and Twitter, that stuff literally has killed people, because there's all these falsehoods that have been spread."

He said we must all have empathy for any young woman of childbearing years who chooses not to get a vaccine because of the misinformation she's being fed that it could cause infertility, "when there is no evidence that that's the case whatsoever." 

"We've got to find a way to overcome that," he said. 

It's easy to get locked into an echo chamber and to hear only what a person likes to hear, Stack said, recommending that everyone needs to "unplug" from social media more often and to treat all of it as "a treat" instead of a staple. He also encouraged people to be more selective about where they get their news. 

"And by the grace of God, none of us should be watching anything on cable television that purports to be news that is really entertainment," he said. 

The latest Kaiser Family Foundation Covid-19 Vaccine Monitor poll that looked at media and misinformation found that belief in pandemic-related misinformation is widespread, with 78% of adults saying they have heard at least one of eight different false statements about Covid-19 and that they believe it to be true or are unsure if it is true or false. One-third (32%) of all adults believe or are uncertain about at least four false statements. 

The eight common falsehoods asked about in the poll included: the government is exaggerating the number of Covid-19 deaths; pregnant women should not get a vaccine; deaths due to vaccines are being intentionally hidden by the government; the vaccines have been shown to cause infertility; Ivermectin is a safe and effective treatment for Covid-19; you can get Covid-19 from a vaccine; the vaccines contain a microchip; and they can change your DNA. All those statements are false.

A Kaiser news release said, "Belief in Covid-19 misinformation is correlated with both vaccination status and partisanship, with unvaccinated adults and Republicans much more likely to believe or be unsure about false statements compared to vaccinated adults and Democrats."

Kaiser Family Foundation graph; click on it to enlarge.

The poll, taken Oct. 14-24, also found that a person's trusted news source correlated with their belief in Covid-19 misinformation.

The survey found that respondents were less likely to believe any of the eight pieces of misinformation if they said their trusted news source for Covid-19 information was CNN, MSNBC, network news, NPR or local TV news.

The poll found that misinformation was more likely to be believed by those who said their trusted Covid-19 information came from conservative news sources, "with nearly four in 10 of those who trust Fox News (36%) and One America News (37%) and nearly half (46%) of those who trust Newsmax for such information saying they have heard at least four of the falsehoods tested in the survey and either believe them to be true or are unsure if they’re true or false."

That finding doesn't prove that those sources convey misinformation, because it could also be that the types of people who choose those sources are likely to believe certain types of misinformation, the release said. 

Stack told the rural health conferees that overall pandemic trends in Kentucky are heading "in the right direction," but expressed concern that cold weather and an increase in indoor social events during the holiday season could lead to another rise in cases, especially in rural areas with low vaccination rates.

"It raises the real concern that we could have yet another escalation. . . . Folks clearly are not in the same level of compliance with mask use and physical distancing that we were last year, and that will all be a recipe for an increase," he said.

Most of Kentucky's 120 counties have less than one-half of their populations vaccinated with at least one dose of a vaccine, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

State Dept. for Public Health map, adapted by Ky. Health News; click on it to enlarge. Interactive at
https://dashboard.chfs.ky.gov/views/KYPublicFacingDashboard_16191000580170/KentuckyCOVID-19Vaccination

Poll: Vaccine holdouts come around for four big reasons, which are most effective in combination, not independently

Kaiser Family Foundation chart; click the image to enlarge it

A Kaiser Family Foundation poll of Americans vaccinated against the coronavirus since June 1 showed the reasons people who weren't sure about it finally got their shots. The biggest were the Delta variant, worries about hospitals filling up, seeing an acquaintance or friend get seriously ill or die from Covid-19, and wanting to take part in activities that required vaccination.

What's most interesting in the poll is that "none of these approaches work very well in isolation," says Yale University physician and public-health lecturer James Hamblin. "Hesitant people don't get vaccinated because of one 'main' reason, so much as because of a gradual accretion of reasons. They add up to eventually create the necessary urgency and eventually tip us toward responsible action."

That's no different than how most people make major life decisions, he writes, and it's reason for optimism: "Point being, small things matter, even if you don't see the impact right away. If you've had conversations with friends or family—or even just shared an article or study, or sent simple notes to people you know saying you care about them and hope they'll reconsider—and yet you don't feel it helped, you're not alone. And ultimately it still may help. You just might not know what part you played."

Covid-19 shots are proven effective at preventing hospitalization, but unvaccinated Republicans in national poll don't think so

Gallup Inc. graph, with "correct answer" note added by Kentucky Health News

Kentucky Health News

Covid-19 vaccinations prevent severe illness and hospitalizations, but a recent national poll finds that not everyone believes this to be true, especially Republicans. 

Gallup Inc. found that most Americans overstate the likelihood of being hospitalized after contracting Covid-19 for both the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, which is less than 1 percent, but are fairly accurate at estimating the effectiveness of the vaccines at preventing hospitalization, which is about 86%, Johathan Rothwell and Dan Witters report for Gallup.  

The vaccines' effectiveness is just slightly lower in Kentucky. From March 1 through Sept. 29, the state reports that 86.2% of coronavirus cases, 92.4% of Covid-19 hospital cases and 84.5% of Covid-19 deaths have been in unvaccinated or partially vaccinated Kentuckians.

To better understand what the public understands about the efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccines, Gallup asked 3,158 U.S. adults two questions Aug. 16-22: “As far as you know, what percentage of unvaccinated people have been hospitalized due to the coronavirus?” and “As far as you know, what percentage of fully vaccinated people have been hospitalized due to the coronavirus?”

Subtract the second percentage from the first and you get each group's perceived effectiveness of the vaccine, which the pollsters call "median efficacy rate."

Democrats gave the vaccines a median efficacy rate of about 88% at reducing hospitalizations. Independents gave them a rate of 75%. Republicans gave them only 50%. Among unvaccinated Republicans, the rate was zero; they saw no benefit of vaccination to prevent hospitalization.

The correct answer to both questions is less than 1 percent, but only 8% of unvaccinated respondents knew that; and just 38% of the vaccinated knew it.

Among the unvaccinated respondents, 41% of Democrats, 22% of Republicans and 26% of independents said more than half of unvaccinated people have been hospitalized, which is wildly incorrect. Asked about the vaccinated population, 42% of Democrats, 33% of Republicans and 37% of independents knew the correct answer. 

The poll suggests that the gap in information about the effectiveness of the vaccine could be related to the news each of the political groups consume. 

“Given previous studies on the effects of the media and information during Covid, one possible reason is that Democrats are more consistently exposed to information that favorably portrays vaccine efficacy,” Rothwell and Witters write. "Vaccine acceptance is unlikely to significantly increase among Republicans until their trusted media or other information sources emphasize the benefits of vaccination." 

Gallup polling shows that as of September 2021, 92% of Democrats, 56% of Republicans and 68% of independents have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

Just 20% of Ky. adults say a health-care provider has contacted them about a Covid-19 shot; only 14% say their health insurer has

By Al Cross and Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

Only one in five Kentuckians say they have been contacted by a health professional about getting a Covid-19 vaccine, and just one in seven say have been contacted for that reason by their health-insurance provider, according to a statewide poll taken Aug. 4 through Sept. 4.

Twenty percent of adults said a doctor, nurse or other health professional had contacted them about vaccination, and only 14% said their health-insurance provider had, the poll for the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky discovered.

Foundation President and CEO Ben Chandler announced the poll results during the foundation's annual Howard L. Bost Memorial Health Policy Forum. He said the results for health-care professionals were "a little bit surprising" and those for health-insurance providers were "a real shocker." 

"What this tells us, I think, is that we have a lot of work to do," Chandler said. "Would doctors and health insurance providers reaching out have made a difference in where we are today? Well, I don't know the answer to that. But I do think . . . it's certainly worth a try in the future to think about seeing if we could figure out a way to get doctors and to get insurance companies to reach out more effectively and, and in a systematic way to the people who have not gotten vaccinated." 

The poll also found that Kentucky adults said they would take recommendations on vaccines from their health-care providers, but for reasons unknown the providers have not reached out to them much, Chandler said.

The poll asked Kentucky adults if they agreed with this statement: "Generally, I do what my doctor or health-care provider recommends about vaccines for me." Sixty percent strongly agreed, 22% agreed somewhat, 1% leaned toward agreeing, 9% disagreed somewhat, 6% strongly disagreed and 2% said they didn't know. The older and better educated the respondent, the more likely they were to agree.

The poll, which had an error margin of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points, found that 27% of adults who had not taken a Covid-19 vaccine said they strongly agreed that they would take their vaccine recommendations from their doctor. Chandler said that suggests that one-third of Kentuckians might be persuaded by their doctor or other health-care provider to get a Covid-19 shot. Just over half have received one dose of a vaccine so far.

"We may be able to figure out a way to create a system where this could happen," Chandler said. "I think we could maybe make up some ground if we did that."

Cory Meadows of the Kentucky Medical Association, the lobby for physicians, was asked during a forum panel discussion about vaccine messaging why more providers aren't reaching out to their patients. He said it could be due partly to their a heavier-than-usual workload after pandemic slowdowns last year.

"I do think there's a practical side to it," Meadows said. "Given the workload and the patient load that they have . . . the real side of it right now is catching up on a lot of stuff. But I do think that many of them are starting to have those conversations, especially during this Delta surge."

Dr. Brent Wright of Glasgow while moderating a panel on the first day of the forum said it's difficult to have 15-minute conversations to explain vaccines and when you are running 30 minutes behind already.

Meadows acknowledged that some health-care providers may be reluctant to bring up the controversial topic of Covid-19 vaccination for fear of losing patients, but said that while they may be careful to soften their tone, he did not think that was a significant factor. 

"There may be a certain element to that," he said. "I think physicians try to be sensitive to patients' concerns. However, I think given the severity of this virus, especially with the Delta surge, I don't sense, at least in my conversations with physicians, that that's holding a lot of them back. . . . I think given the severity of the situation, that barrier is not there, maybe it would be in normal times so as not to offend their patient."

The poll found little statistical difference among various groups of Kentuckians, but the results suggested differences among educational levels. College graduates appeared least likely to say they had been contacted by a health professional, but appeared most likely to be contacted by their health insurer.

Conversely, those with a high-school diploma or less education seemed most likely to say they had been contacted by a health professional, and among the least likely to say they had been contacted by their health insurer. 

More than a third of Kentuckians get free health care through Medicaid, a federal-state program for the low-income and disabled. State government uses insurance-company subsidiaries to manage relations with Medicaid beneficiaries, who have a low vaccination rate.

Any possibility that the beneficiaries may not think of managed-care firms as a "health-insurance provider," the wording used in the poll question, did not arise when the poll was field-tested before it was conducted, pollster Eric Rademacher of the University of Cincinnati told Kentucky Health News.

The Kentucky Association of Health Plans, the lobby for insurance companies in the state, said it had engaged in "unprecedented outreach campaigns" with community partners, using "calls, texts, emails, letters, social media, events, giveaways, and promotions to encourage commercial and Medicaid plan members to receive the Covid-19 vaccine."

KAHP's latest gambit is a sweepstakes for Medicaid beneficiaries, with 20 Disney World trips as the prizes. At least some All managed-care organizations are offering Medicaid beneficiaries cash bonuses for getting vaccinated, KAHP spokesman Tyler Glick said.

Poll and falling vaccination rates spark concern that Covid-19 conflicts make Kentuckians skeptical of long-accepted vaccines

Poll found that 27.3% of Kentucky adults said not all CDC-recommended vaccines are beneficial.

By Melissa Patrick

Kentucky Health News

The first day of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky's annual health policy forum addressed vaccine hesitancy, which the foundation's latest poll and other information show may be spreading to affect public attitudes toward all vaccines, not just those developed to fight the coronavirus.

The day also included a dire warning from the state's top doctor that it's time for vaccines to be seen like other public safety measures that lower the risk for serious harm -- like requiring the use of seat belts -- because he hasn't seen hospitals under so much distress in his 25 years in health care. 

"I've never seen all of health care across whole states on the brink of collapse in the hospitals. And yet, that's where we are right now," Health Commissioner Steven Stack said, after being asked how the unvaccinated should be persuaded that they have an obligation to society to become immunized.

"As far as societal obligation, I really think that these vaccines for Covid have now reached the point where it's essential," Stack said. "Everybody should get these vaccines, because the consequences being worn by all of society are so adverse, that it no longer becomes reasonable for society to accept those consequences." 

Stack said 90% of new coronavirus cases in Kentucky are among the unvaccinated, as are 91% of Covid-19 hospital patients and 85% of those who have died from it recently, "so here we have yet another example of the incredible power of vaccination and immunization to prevent horrible, horrible adverse harm."

While 59% of the state's total population and 72% of those 18 and older have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, Stack cautioned that there are still counties that have vaccinated less than 34% of their populations with one dose, which puts them "in incredible danger from Covid."

Further, he said the Delta variant is so contagious that for herd immunity to protect the unvaccinated, "We probably now have to have a vaccination rate over 90%," not the previously assumed 75 to 80%. 

That is a tall order, since a fifth of Kentuckians in the foundation's poll said they would probably not or definitely not get vaccinated. That was an improvement from 29% in the previous poll, taken in late winter, but Ben Chandler, president and CEO of the foundation, voiced concern that unfounded controversies about the Covid-19 vaccines are undermining confidence in other vaccines.

In the most recent poll, taken Aug. 4-Sept. 4, seven in 10 Kentucky adults agreed that all recommended, routine vaccines are beneficial; four out of five agreed that being vaccinated is important to the health of a community; and 90% said they believe vaccination is a good way to protect themselves from disease.

But when asked if all routine vaccines recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are beneficial, 27% said they disagreed. And only three in five said all children should be required to be vaccinated, and three out of seven said parents should be able to block vaccination of their children.

Stack pointed out that rates of vaccination for many childhood diseases declined 20% last year, mainly when the state and nation were in the initial pandemic lockdown, and have not recovered to previous levels.

Chandler said, "We believe the issue of declining public confidence in vaccines is a burgeoning crisis," and noted that the World Health Organization calls vaccine hesitancy one of the top 10 threats to global health.

"Any decline in these numbers is cause for concern," he said. "Decisions made by parents today and actions taken by our legislators today will lead to results that we may not see for years. We cannot take our vaccine policies for granted. History has shown us lapses in protection can cause future pandemics, impacting people's health, our economy, and the future of our civilization." 

Most recently, Kentucky passed a law during the 2020 legislative session that added a "conscientiously held belief" exemption for any child or adult in Kentucky who doesn't want to receive a vaccine that the state mandates during an epidemic or a pandemic. 

The poll also took a look at hesitancy about the influenza vaccine, finding that almost two-thirds of Kentucky adults said they are very or somewhat likely to get the vaccine by the end of the year; 28.4% said they were very unlikely to get the flu vaccine and 5.9% said they were somewhat unlikely to get it.  

The most recent poll, conducted by the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Cincinnati, included more than 500 adults who were contacted by both landline and cell phones. Its margin of error is plus or minus 4.3 percentage points. Read the briefs here.

The annual Howard L. Bost Memorial Health Policy Forum, being held Monday and Tuesday, is sponsored by the foundation and Aetna Better Health of Kentucky.

Poll shows fewer Kentuckians hesitant about vaccines, but 'hard core' 20% are dead-set against; mask views, habits deeply split

The question above was asked of those poll respondents who had said they had not been vaccinated. 

By Al Cross

Kentucky Health News

When vaccines for the coronavirus were rolling out in late winter, 29 percent of Kentucky adults said they would probably not or definitely not get vaccinated; by last month, the figure had dropped to 20%, according to polls taken for the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.

Almost three-fourths of Kentucky adults have been vaccinated for the virus. Among the unvaccinated in August, one in five said they were still open to vaccination, but almost half said they would definitely not get a shot, and almost a third said nothing would persuade them otherwise.

"The greatest concern is that we have essentially a hard-core group, 20 percent or so here in Kentucky, that just simply is not going to get the vaccine," foundation President Ben Chandler said. "The underlying reason is that they are listening to people who are skeptical or anti-vaccine."

Chandler said the state has made some progress in reducing vaccine hesitancy and raising the vaccination rate, thanks in part to pro-vaccination efforts, but he said the main reason is that people are scared of the Delta variant of the virus, which is much more contagious than earlier variants.

Vaccination records show that daily vaccinations in Kentucky generally began increasing in early July, when the surge driven by the Delta variant became apparent. They have slacked off recently and are now on a rough plateau, much like the daily number of new cases.

"I think personally the Delta variant has more to do with changing people's minds than anything else because . . . people are locked into their own news sources," Chandler said. "Many of them are hearing skepticism about vaccines . . . More than anything, I think it's how we disseminate information in this country that's causing the difficulty."

Chandler said pro-vaccination campaigners "are just pulling their hair out on this subject, trying to figure out what on Earth we're gonna do to try to get these people vaccinated. . . . They seem to be immovable, despite a whole lot of facts that a  lot of people are aware of."

He said the solution lies at the local level. "You've got to find the folks who influence these people, and you've got to get them to influence them along different lines. You know, you've got influencers who feel very strongly about this and are anti-vaccine, and until we can somehow get those minds changed I think it's going to be very, very difficult. In certain respects, we're kind of stuck in concrete."

He said the hard core is "essentially prepared to act as hosts for this virus, hosts that can allow the virus to mutate, and of course, that puts everybody in jeopardy. . . . That ought to be of tremendous concern to all of us."

The latest poll was conducted Aug. 4 through Sept. 4. It asked many other questions about vaccination, and about masks, the main short-term measure experts recommend to fight the virus.

Reported mask-wearing practice split evenly, three ways. One-third said they always wear a mask in an crowded outdoor space, while another third wear a mask sometimes or occasionally, and he other third never do.

Almost half said they always wear a mask indoors in a crowded public space. That included more than a third of those who said they hadn't been vaccinated. However, almost a fourth of the unvaccinated say they never wear a mask indoors in a crowded public space.

Asked about requiring proof of vaccination, Kentucky adults' opinions depended in large part on the circumstances. Two out of three said it would be a bad idea to require proof of vaccination to enter a retail store, but just over half said it’s a good idea for sporting events and concerts to require proof, and two-thirds said that should be the case for airliners and other p public transportation.

The poll was taken during a period when the state required everyone in public schools to mask up, and the state Supreme Court upheld laws limiting the governor's emergency powers. It was completed just before the legislature abolished the statewide mask mandate, leaving the decision up to local school officials. 

It found that two-thirds of Kentuckians think it’s a good idea for schools to require children who are not vaccinated against the virus to wear masks. Those who said they have children living in their homes were about 10 percentage points less likely to say that. That split was even greater when it came to requiring vaccination of children 12 and older, who are eligible to be vaccinated. Overall, Kentuckians were about evenly divided on the issue, but two-thirds of those who said they have children at home said requiring vaccination for school would be a bad idea.