More than Half of Farmers Plan to Get COVID-19 Vaccine, New Survey Shows
More Vaccine for Rural America 050621
Rural America was put in the spotlight this week as President Biden rolled out new vaccination goals. As the Biden administration pushes to get 70% of all adults at least one dose by July 4th, it's a goal that Biden says can only be achieved with rural America's help.
"Beginning next week, we'll be shipping new allocations of vaccine to rural health clinics, getting more vaccines to more rural clinics, so Americans who don't live near one of those 75,000 vaccination sites will have new options that may be closer than anything they thought," said Biden this week. "We know that vaccination rates are lower in rural areas, and that's why we're going to get vaccines closer than ever to rural residents."
A recent survey found more than half of farmers plan to get vaccinated. The April Ag Economy Barometer, gathered by Purdue University and the CME Group, is a survey of 400 agricultural producers. The latest survey found 54% of those surveyed say they plan to get vaccinated, while 32% say they have no plans to get vaccinated at this point.
"Since January, the percentage of agricultural producers saying they do not plan to get vaccinated has ranged from 28% to 32%," James Mintert and Michael Langemeier, Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture, states in the Barometer. "These results suggest the reluctance to get vaccinated for COVID among U.S. ag producers mirrors that of the larger population of all U.S. adults."
The entire administration is making the vaccine push, which includes Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The Agriculture Secretary made several tweets this week, focused on how vaccinations will be a focus in rural America.
If you need to find a place to get the COVID vaccine, just text your ZIP code to 438829. You'll get locations near you where you can get vaccinated! #WeCanDoThis https://t.co/ov4YLM28Ib — Secretary Tom Vilsack (@SecVilsack) May 4, 2021
U.S. Surgeon General vice admiral Dr. Vivek Murthy was on AgriTalk May 4 and discussed the President's plan on AgriTalk this week. He told AgriTalk host Chip Flory that in order to reach the new goal, the U.S. will need to administer another 100 million shots over the next 60 days.
“The progress report is good,” Murthy says. “We have made tremendous progress in vaccinating the country to date. If you look at people above the age of 65, we've gotten at least one dose of the vaccine into more than 80%, which is pretty extraordinary. And we have about 70% of our seniors who are now fully vaccinated.”
The U.S. Surgeon General went into details about some Americans hesitancy in getting the vaccine. Read more about some of the FAQs of getting vaccinated here.
