(WSIL)---In the US, less than half of the population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
But a recent poll from ABC says, 30% of adults surveyed will not get the vaccine.
As COVID cases and hospitalizations rise, health officials said those unvaccinated are at risk.
"The majority of our new cases are people who are not vaccinated," said Jackson County Health Department's Division Director, Paula Clark.
Seventy-nine percent of adults surveyed say they won't get the vaccine because they do not believe they are at risk for COVID-19.
"That's similar to saying, 'I'm not going to wear my seat belt because I haven't been in a car accident, and maybe after I get in a car accident, I'll consider wearing my seatbelt,'" said Dr. Jeff Ripperda.
Ripperda stressed the purpose of getting the vaccine is for prevention as well as protection.
"The idea of getting the COVID vaccine is that you stay in the percentage of Americans who don't get COVID, and maybe more importantly, for people who are young and healthy to make sure that you don't pass it on to someone else," said Ripperda.
Seventy-three percent of those polled say that they believe that the Delta variant is being over exaggerated.
Dr. Ripperda said these claims are false, because after a mostly quiet stretch from COVID, he now has four patients who had to be hospitalized because of the virus.
"The common denominator in all four of my patients who've been in the hospital in the past month or two is that each one of them had the opportunity to get the vaccine and either turned it down or deferred it, and for one patient in particular, the day that he said no to getting the vaccine in his workplace, might turn out to be a life or death decision on the wrong side," said Ripperda.
Health departments now plead with the public, to prevent the variants from spreading.
"The more people that get vaccinated, the less these variants can mutate. And you know, at some point, we're worried that these variants could not be covered by the vaccination. So it's real important that people get vaccinated to do their part in controlling the variants," said Clark.
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