60% of Americans say that they would get a COVID-19 vaccine amid growing confidence in the development process, new data show

• A Pew Research Center survey conducted in November found 60% of American adult respondents said they are willing to get vaccinated if a "vaccine to prevent COVID-19 were available today."
• American adult respondents who said that they have confidence that the "research and development process will yield a safe and effective" coronavirus vaccine rose from 65% to 75% between September and November, according to Pew.
• Even so, 39% of respondents said they would not get a coronavirus vaccine, and willingness to get a vaccine varies widely among different racial and ethnic groups.
• As a supply of vaccines is expected to arrive soon, leaders around the world, including three former US presidents, have publicly emphasized the safety of vaccines.

The American public is more willing to be vaccinated to prevent coronavirus than a few months before, according to a new survey.

A Pew Research Center survey conducted in November and published last week found 60% of American adults said they would definitely or probably get vaccinated if a "vaccine to prevent COVID-19 were available today." This response is a little short of a 10% increase from answers published by Pew in September when 51% of respondents said they would get a vaccine.

At the same time, public confidence in the vaccine has appeared to have grown as well, according to data from Pew. American adult respondents who said that they have confidence that the "research and development process will yield a safe and effective" coronavirus vaccine rose from 65% to 75% between September and November, according to Pew.

Even so, 39% of respondents said they would definitely or probably not get a coronavirus vaccine, according to Pew. Experts warned that persistent hesitations about a coronavirus vaccine could prolong the fight against disease spread, Business Insider's Kelly McLaughlin and Yelena Dzhanova previously reported. Amid confusing factors like widespread misinformation that has spread through online communities since the beginning of the pandemic, experts emphasized that authorities should prioritize providing clear information for the public to trust the safety of the vaccines.

Information could play a significant role in Americans receiving the vaccine, as 18% of respondents in the Pew survey said "it's possible they would decide to get vaccinated once people start getting a vaccine and more information becomes available." The other 21% of respondents who said they don't intend to be vaccinated "are 'pretty certain' more information will not change their mind."

The survey also showed a significant gap between how different racial and ethnic groups feel about getting vaccinated against the coronavirus. According to Pew, 42% of Black Americans said they intended to get a vaccine, contrasting with the 61% and 63% of white and Hispanic survey respondents who said they would likely or definitely receive the vaccine. English-speaking Asian Americans were by far the most likely group to be vaccinated with 83% of respondents answering they would do so, according to Pew.

The Black community has been cautious about partaking in vaccine trials. This expressed skepticism is rooted in a level of mistrust in the American healthcare system, where history shows many Black Americans have been exploited for medical research, Business Insider's Taylor Ardrey previously reported.

In November, Moderna and Pfizer both filed for emergency-use authorization of their vaccines to the Food and Drug Administration. Moderna and Pfizer reported a 94.5% and 95% efficacy in its late-stage clinical trial, respectively.

As a supply of approed vaccines is expected to arrive soon, leaders around the world are working to build public trust in the vaccine. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, former President Barack Obama, former President George Bush, and former President Bill Clinton have all volunteered to get their coronavirus vaccine in public, to encourage public confidence in the vaccine.