Coronavirus Watch: Half of Americans wouldn't get vaccine

Only about half of Americans say they would get a COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available, according to a new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

The poll found 31% simply weren’t sure if they’d get vaccinated. Another 1 in 5 said they’d refuse.

Among Americans who say they wouldn’t get vaccinated, most cited concerns about safety.

It's Wednesday, and this is Coronavirus Watch from the Paste BN Network.

Here's the latest news, as of 12:45 p.m. ET:

• More than 1.68 million people have tested positive for the virus in the U.S., and more than 99,000 have died, according to the Johns Hopkins University data dashboard. See a map of confirmed cases here.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention clarified its "confusing" guideline language about the spread of coronavirus on surfaces and objects. 
• Gov. Andrew Cuomo was scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump in Washington on Wednesday to discuss pumping money into New York's slumbering economy.
• Between 2.1 million and 2.4 million Americans filed initial applications for unemployment insurance last week, economists estimate. At the high end, that would match the number who filed claims the week before, but it's down from the record 6.9 million who sought assistance in late March.
• Brazil's reported death toll, now at about 25,000, could exceed 125,000 by early August and continue to increase after that, according to forecasts from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington.
• The nation’s $30 billion wine industry stands to lose nearly $6 billion this year, with smaller wineries getting hit the hardest, according to a report.
• Some Apple Stores will reopen this week, with 100 of the 271 U.S. outlets opening their doors again.
• Nevada will soon welcome tourists again as casinos are set to open June 4 with social distancing restrictions, Gov. Steve Sisolak announced late Tuesday.
• The city of Los Angeles opened its biggest testing site at Dodger Stadium, which can test up to 6,000 people daily for free.
• Walt Disney World plans to reopen July 11, according to a presentation the company made to an economic recovery task force Wednesday.

Coronavirus summer: Check out our deep-dive into how to stay safe at the pool and beach.

Missed our special edition? Paste BN’s Sustaining America, an 88-page special edition, tells the stories of people and companies helping to combat this disease and its crippling effects. Read it online here.

Do you have questions about the coronavirus? Submit them through this form, and we'll answer them! Charles from Houston, Texas, asks: If we have tested positive for the virus, do we ever become non-contagious?

Yes. People are thought to be the most contagious when they are the sickest, but how long someone is actively sick with the virus can vary, according to the CDC. If you've been sick, the CDC has provided some strategies for determining when it's safe to leave isolation.

But recovering from an active infection is different from developing long-term immunity. Health experts still don't know if people who had the virus and recovered are immune from contracting the virus again or of passing it on to others. The CDC says that the "presence of antibodies could confer at least short-term immunity," but, for now, "you should continue to protect yourself and others since it’s possible you could get infected with the virus again."

As always, thank you for subscribing and trusting the Paste BN Network with this important information. Know someone who would benefit from this newsletter? Please forward this email so they can sign up here.

— Grace Hauck, Breaking News Reporter, @grace_hauck