Reluctant Americans want more information on vaccine, poll finds.

Fewer Americans are reluctant to get a COVID-19 vaccine than just a few months ago, but questions about side effects and how the shots were tested still hold some back, according to a new poll that highlights the challenges at a pivotal moment in the U.S. vaccination campaign.

Just 11 percent of people who remain unvaccinated say they definitely will get the shot, while 34 percent say they definitely won’t, according to the poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

That leaves a large swath of Americans in the middle who might still roll up their sleeves — including 27 percent who say they probably will and 27 percent who say they probably won’t — if someone credible addressed their concerns. That’s where National Institutes of Health immunologist Kizzmekia Corbett comes in.

Corbett helped lead development of the Moderna shot, and she spends hours giving plain-spoken answers to questions from Americans — especially Black Americans like her — to counter misinformation about the three vaccines used in the U.S.

No, COVID-19 vaccines won’t cause infertility: “Whoever started that rumor, shame on you.”

No, the shots’ speedy development doesn’t mean corners were cut: “We worked our butts off for the last six years” hunting vaccines for earlier cousins of COVID-19 — a head start that made the difference, Corbett recently told the AP.

Getting as many people vaccinated as fast as possible is crucial to returning the country to normal. More than 150 million people — about 58 percent of all adults — have received at least one dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As that number grows, reluctance is inching down. Overall, the AP-NORC poll found about 1 in 5 American adults say they probably or definitely won’t get vaccinated, compared to about a third in January, when the shots were just rolling out.

Black Americans likewise are becoming more open to the shots, with 26 percent now saying they definitely or probably won’t get vaccinated compared with 41 percent in January. That’s similar to the 22 percent of Hispanic Americans and white Americans the poll found unlikely to get vaccinated. Among Asian Americans, just 9 percent say they definitely or probably won’t get the shots.

Adults under 45, rural Americans and Republicans are especially likely to say they will avoid vaccination, the poll found. But again, attitudes are changing: 32 percent of Republicans now say they probably or definitely won’t get vaccinated, down from 44 percent in January.

About three-fourths of those who say they are unlikely to get vaccinated have little to no confidence that the vaccines were properly tested, and 55 percent are very concerned about side effects, the poll found.

A combination of huge studies and real-world data show the main side effects of the U.S. vaccines are temporary fevers or aches as the immune system revs up. The shots are undergoing unprecedented safety monitoring, which last month led to a temporary pause in Johnson & Johnson vaccinations to determine how to handle an incredibly rare risk of blood clots.

Even after that pause, overall confidence in the vaccines is up slightly compared with a few months ago, with 45 percent of all adults now very or extremely confident that the shots were properly tested for safety and effectiveness, compared with 39 percent in an AP-NORC poll in February.