Although nearly 70% of Hawaii adults recently polled are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus and an additional 7% are partially vaccinated, there are still 12% who say they don’t intend to get any of the COVID-19 inoculations available to them.

Those are the results of a statewide survey of 412 random residents May 18-26 by SMS Research & Marketing Service Inc. of Honolulu.

According to the independent and nonsponsored survey, another 12% have yet to be vaccinated but still plan to get it accomplished.

The holdouts, the survey said, don’t trust the vaccines in general or are concerned about the abbreviated time it took to develop them. Others cited religious or political objections or concern about an allergic reaction.

The survey has a sampling error estimated at plus or minus 5 percentage points at the 95% confidence level, and the data was balanced to reflect the adult population of the state using 2019 U.S. Census data.

But because only 51 people said they weren’t getting a shot, the reasons they cited in the survey have a greater sampling error, SMS officials said.

Last month the Pew Research Center released a nationwide poll that found 30% of the public doesn’t plan to get vaccinated. But it also reported that a growing number of Americans were warming up to the idea.

Those who didn’t plan to get vaccinated told Pew they had concerns about side effects, held a belief that vaccines were developed and tested too quickly and/or wanted to know more about how well they work as major reasons why they do not intend to get vaccinated.

Hawaii’s 12% seems like a small number, but SMS President Faith Rex said that when you add in the 12% who plan to get a shot, it aligns more closely with the national number. If you haven’t gotten your vaccination by now, she said, there’s certainly no guarantee you’re going to do it in the future.

The survey, conducted in May, found that 69% of Hawaii adults are fully vaccinated, and an additional 7% were partially vaccinated. Lt. Gov. Josh Green estimated this week that 80% of adults have been vaccinated.

State Department of Health spokesman Brooks Baehr said Thursday that the official number of fully vaccinated adults in Hawaii is 57%. But he conceded that the percentage is low because it doesn’t account for Department of Defense or Veterans Administration vaccinations in Hawaii.

With the military population estimated at 150,000, the survey’s figure is certainly closer to the real percentage of adults vaccinated, Baehr said.

Who is being vaccinated in Hawaii? According to the survey, the older an individual is, the more likely he or she will be vaccinated. Some 96% of island residents over 70 said they were fully vaccinated, compared with 49% of residents age 18 to 29.

“More than 90% of age 65 and older have initiated the vaccination process,” Baehr said. “They are protecting all of us by being vaccinated. They are going to help squish this thing. Now, if we can only get the 18- to 39-year-olds vaccinated.”

Along ethnic lines, 88% of Japanese and 75% of Caucasians are fully vaccinated, according to the survey, while only 49% of Hawaiian or part-Hawaiian adult residents have gotten the jab.

Those who are in a better financial position are also more likely to be vaccinated, according to the survey. Some 82% of adult members of a household with an income over $100,000 are vaccinated as compared with 39% of adults living in households with a $25,000 income.

Despite the high number of vaccinated adults, a large majority of residents continue to harbor some level of concern about mingling with people who have not been vaccinated. Only 12% are not at all concerned, according to the survey.

Leading the way among those unconcerned are Caucasian adults, with 1 in 4 not concerned about mingling with the unvaccinated, compared with only 1% of residents of Japanese ancestry.

On another question, most Hawaii residents — 66% statewide and 71% on Oahu — said they believe fully vaccinated visitors should not be forced to quarantine like they are now.

Former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann agrees.

“The research and data I’ve seen indicates that being fully vaccinated greatly lessens the likelihood of contracting the virus and transmitting as well,” he said.

Hannemann, president and CEO of the Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association, said that while the cautious approach to the pandemic has helped make Hawaii a safer place, its time to discard out-of-date requirements like the 10-day quarantine for fully vaccinated tourists.

“It’s holding some people back from visiting Hawaii,” he said.