One-Third of Adults Are Less Likely to Get an Omicron-Specific Booster Than Previous Shots

Pandemic conventional wisdom changed early and often during the first months of COVID-19, before solidifying into divergent stances on masking, distancing, and vaccines. Although the pandemic isn’t currently top of mind for many Americans, two major developments are taking effect: relaxed CDC guidelines and the FDA’s emergency authorization of omicron-specific booster shots.

After a summer that saw case counts match or even exceed the height of last year’s delta variant surge with BA.5, the CDC has shortened the recommended isolation periods to match what it considers a shorter window of infectiousness. According to a recent CivicScience survey, Americans’ trust level in the CDC’s information about COVID hasn’t improved since the initial omicron variant surge. Compared to our January data, Americans are 23% more likely to say they ‘[don’t] at all’ trust CDC information.

Trust in the CDC’s COVID guidance breaks down how you might expect across preferred cable news networks — 83% of Fox News viewers have no trust in the CDC; 85% of CNN viewers have ‘a lot’ of trust — but non-cable news viewers are split a little more evenly. Nearly two-thirds of all adults in this subgroup have no trust in the CDC’s COVID guidelines, and 19% harbor ‘a lot’ of trust.

With omicron-specific boosters right around the corner, the medical community’s biggest concern seems to be a lack of uptake. According to CivicScience data, Americans are far less keen on the new boosters. One-third of adults consider themselves ‘less likely’ to get the latest booster than previous shots, with just under one-quarter of adults claiming to be more likely this time around.

Nearly 40% of Americans who consider themselves ‘very healthy’ are less likely to get the omicron-specific booster than past boosters. Those who are ‘not very healthy at all right now’ currently have the lowest chance of being more likely to get this booster than other health brackets, with nearly 30% of that group still undecided.

As COVID slowly glides toward its endemic phase, with case counts still averaging six-figures-per-day, Americans are more hesitant to embrace CDC guidance and booster shots than in earlier periods of the pandemic. Omicron-specific boosters could potentially go a long way toward protecting a large segment of the population from further infection and serious illness, but truly widespread adoption seems out of the question at this point.