PHILADELPHIA – The public's knowledge about monkeypox has increased rapidly in recent weeks though misconceptions and uncertainty persist, and over a quarter of Americans say they are not likely to get vaccinated against monkeypox if they're exposed to it, according to a new Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) survey.
The national panel survey conducted in August finds that 1 in 5 Americans (21%) are somewhat or very worried about contracting monkeypox in the next three months, statistically the same as in our July survey (19%).
The findings come as officials in California and Texas report the deaths of two individuals who had contracted monkeypox, which was declared a public health emergency on Aug. 4 by U.S. health officials. As of Sept. 12, there were 21,985 confirmed U.S. cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In late August, however, the rate of increase in new cases had slowed in parts of the United States, leading CDC Director Rochelle Walensky to say she was "cautiously optimistic."
The survey found increases in knowledge over a month since APPC's last survey:
- Over half (61%) know that a vaccine against monkeypox exists, up from 34% in July.
- The vast majority (84%) know monkeypox usually spreads by close contact with an infected person, compared with 69% in July.
- Nearly two-thirds (63%) know that men who have sex with men are at a higher risk of infection with monkeypox – up from one-third (33%) in July.
- If exposed to the monkeypox virus, most Americans (73%) say they would be likely to get vaccinated – though over a quarter (27%) say they are "not too likely" or "not at all likely" to get the vaccine.
"At a time when people are questioning the capacity of public health authorities to effectively convey important information about consequential health risks, it is a credit to their efforts and those of the news media that the public has so quickly picked up critical knowledge about the new health threat posed by monkeypox," said Annenberg Public Policy Center Director Kathleen Hall Jamieson.
The nationally representative panel of 1,621 U.S. adults surveyed by SSRS for the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania from August 16-22, 2022, was the eighth wave of an Annenberg Science Knowledge (ASK) survey whose respondents were first empaneled in April 2021. The margin of sampling error (MOE) is ± 3.3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. See the appendix and methodology
