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Overall, Kaplan said the ABC News survey data demonstrates that \"even if you are vaccinated you can still become ill, but it is so much less common that the benefit of being vaccinated is vast. It is incredibly protective and it protects you, the people you love, and the people with whom you work.\"

Although the vaccine may not prevent 100% of illness, it lessens the impact for most, Kaplan said.

\"Fully vaccinated individuals are less likely to become severely ill because they've prepared their immune system,\" he said.

Kennedy said that she combats vaccine hesitation by explaining to patients that, at this point, there are millions of people around the world who have received the vaccines, with minimal side effects. The long-term side effect of vaccination, she tells her patients, is that they are not dying from COVID-19.

And what about the commonly stated concern of people who are waiting to get the vaccine because they don't want to be guinea pigs?

Kennedy said she tells her patients that \"if you don't want to be a guinea pig, then don't get COVID.\"

ABC News' Sony Salzman, Eric Strauss, Dr. Alexis E. Carrington, Dr. Chidimma J. Acholonu, Dr. Odelia Lewis, Dr. Priscilla Hanudel, and Dr. Jay Bhatt contributed to this report.

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