More than half the vaccine-hesitant Americans believe that health officials in the country are “exaggerating” the risk of the Delta COVID-19 variant, which was first detected in India, according to a new poll released on Sunday.

The survey, produced by Langer Research Associates, found that a third of American adults are unlikely to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Such resistance is particularly strong among Republicans. The poll found while 86% of Democrats have received at least one shot, the number shot down to 45% when it came to the Republicans.    

Meanwhile, among those who expressed denied to take the jabs, 73% of them believe the government is only “exaggerating” the risk of the B.1.617.2 Delta variant.

Also read: Here’s why some African Americans are hesitant about COVID vaccine

Breaking down the numbers, the new poll, released by The Washington Post and ABC News, revealed that in the group that believes the Delta variant is being “exaggerated,” 57% were Republicans, 55% conservatives, 49% evangelical white Protestants, and 47% residents who live in the rural areas. 

Coming to Democrats, the figures fall down to only 12%.

While among Independents, the number of people who believe the Delta variant is exaggerated falls to 39%. 

The poll found that only 24% of Republicans see themselves as at risk of contracting COVID-19. In comparison, 28% of Independents and 31% of Democrats share the same thought.

While the vaccine-hesitancy is evident through these polls, the Biden administration continues to tout the success of its vaccination campaign, with 66.8% of US adults and 54.6% of all Americans having received at least one dose by 1 July.

However, in their latest stumble, President Joe Biden’s target of vaccinating 70% of adults in the US with at least one shot by 4 July was missed and more than 605,000 have died. 

The poll comes after Dr Anthony Fauci,  White House’s top infectious disease expert, told NBC that of nearly 10,000 US deaths in June, “about 99.2% are unvaccinated. About 0.8% are vaccinated. No vaccine is perfect. But when you talk about the avoidability of hospitalisation and death, it’s really sad and tragic that most of these are avoidable and preventable.”

He also warned against a surge in cases caused by the Delta variant in certain areas of the nation. 

“I don’t think you’re going to be seeing anything nationwide, because fortunately we have a substantial proportion of the population vaccinated. So it’s going to be regional,” he opined, according to The Guardian.