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Raw data: It’s not just COVID shots that Republicans don’t trust

Only a third of Republicans think that COVID-19 vaccines are safe. But then again, they're also skeptical of flu and RSV vaccines. They just don't seem to trust vaccines much.

58 thoughts on “Raw data: It’s not just COVID shots that Republicans don’t trust

  1. Dana Decker

    When I meet a vaccine-skeptic Republican, I say, "Yes! You got that right. Ignore the nefarious Deep State and its Fake News lackeys. Stay pure, my friend."

  2. cld

    Conservatives think they have a right to say anything that happens to wander through their head at any given moment and believe it, and insist that you believe it, as if it were literally true.

    They believe the First Amendment gives them a license to never be wrong, and the Second Amendment gives them the right to kill anyone who disagrees with them because if you disagree with them you're the oppressor.

    1. Anandakos

      "They believe the First Amendment gives them a license to never be wrong, and the Second Amendment gives them the right to kill anyone who disagrees with them because if you disagree with them you're the oppressor."

      How is this different from your response when someone has the temerity to disagree with you?

      1. cld

        I'm not going to shoot them, do not think about it and would never threaten it.

        People I have arguments with are people who are grossly non-convincing and are really working hard to be wrong, and that generally in a way to perpetuate a great deal of harm, for whatever kind of personal failing of their own they find their noxiousness so gratifying. And if I can help them not be wrong and get past whatever their issue is that's a day well spent.

        1. kgus

          For the record, I've been disagreeing with right-wingers here in (formerly) very red Arizona for 50 years. No one ever threatened to shoot me.

          1. Ken Rhodes

            You must live in a very genteel neighborhood.

            Those still exist, of course. Places where people who disagree can argue their points, and can agree to disagree without being disagreeable.

            But there are sure a lot of the other kinds of places, too.

    1. Joseph Harbin

      If you want a history of measles cases, see this chart. Jimmy Carter inherited a spike in cases and got funding to made immunizations a priority. Measles came way, way down. With funding cut under Reagan and Bush, cases spiked again.

      I got measles in the beginning of 1991. It put me in the hospital and nearly killed me. (I was in my 30s. Kids fare better.) I'd been vaccinated, though with a less-effective vaccine from many years before. When fewer people get their shots, the risks rise for everybody.

      Ditto, when people vote for Republicans.

  3. kkseattle

    Infectious disease, cheap cigarettes, lack of seatbelt law enforcement, lack of health care . . . Red America is killing itself off at a rapid clip.

  4. Justin

    It's fine. If people want to take some risks, what's it to you? Every poll these days is a measure of partisanship. The questions are irrelevant.

    1. Justin

      They should ask republican cancer patients if they think their treatments are effective or just a scam to waste their money! Stop the treatments! Inject bleach and ivermectin instead.

    2. BigFish

      If people want to risk catching a highly contagious ailment, what's it to me, you ask? It's important to me and anyone else who comes into contact with them.

    1. Bardi

      While I tend to agree, I think it may be that they don't believe in Darwin because a potential process like that takes too much brain power for them. Judging from the way they "govern", I would suggest consequences more than one level are a problem.

  5. roboto

    Kevin still hasn't explained why the UK and much of Europe have not allowed those under 65 or 50, depending on the country, to take an mRNA booster unless an exception. There are no vaccine shortages, either. Then again, there was the Danish study in spring of 2022 that showed that before Omicron, the risk in health to those under 50 in taking an mRNA was greater than the benefit.

    1. jte21

      There is no issue with mRNA vaccines in the EU. Scientific agencies have found Covid vaccines to be very safe and effective.

      https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/human-regulatory/overview/public-health-threats/coronavirus-disease-covid-19/covid-19-medicines/safety-covid-19-vaccines

      In France, to give one example, people over 65 and those with comorbitities are being specifically advised to get a new Covid vaccine (along with seasonal flu), but anyone who wants an updated shot can get one if they haven't had Covid in the past six months.

    2. lower-case

      Sept 14 (Reuters) - The European regulator's advisory panel on Thursday recommended authorising an updated COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna (MRNA.O), putting it on track to become the second shot to be used in the EU countries' vaccination campaign this autumn.

      The updated shot, branded Spikevax, to target the dominant XBB.1.5 variant of Omicron was recommended for use in adults and children aged 6 months and above.

      Earlier this month, the European Commission authorised an updated COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer (PFE.N) and its German partner BioNtech (22UAy.DE) for the same population.

      The European Medicines Agency's (EMA) advisory panel recommended that everyone above 5 years of age should receive the shot, irrespective of their COVID vaccination history.

      For children 6 months to 4 years of age, the panel recommended they receive one or two doses of the updated Moderna shot based on whether they have completed a primary vaccination course or were previously infected.

      The updated shots from both Moderna and Pfizer have been authorized for use in the United States and pharmacy chains CVS Health (CVS.N) and Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA.O) have said they expect the shots to be available in their stores as early as this week.

  6. jte21

    It's clearly become a marker of political tribalism for Republicans to hate science and say vaccines are evil. It's funny, because vaccine skepticism used to be a fringe thing on the far left in most cases -- and indeed, it appears that around 15% of Democrats are still with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on this.

    1. rrhersh

      I have been impressed watching people who have been getting vaccines for themselves and their children all their lives who have suddenly discovered that vaccines will make a second head sprout from your shoulders.

    2. Art Eclectic

      Tribal identity has been used very effectively to change the nature of religion as well. You basically can't be Christian in the USA anymore unless you believe abortion is murder, homosexuality is unnatural, sex is purely for procreation, and everyone not adhering to gender norms is mentally ill.

    1. skeptonomist

      If too many people don't get vaccinated it can cause epidemics. Your health can be at risk because other people don't vaccinate.

      Suppose you get the disease in the next epidemic, but the hospitals are already full because of Republicans (and Kennedyites) who are much more likely to get it?

  7. azumbrunn

    I always wonder how many of the anti-vaxxers are just needle phobic and glomm on to any theory about vaccine danger because it is easier to claim a "scientific" reason for refusal rather than to admit they have this phobia (i.e. they are cowards).

    1. jte21

      Nah. It's pure political performativity. If I had to, I'd bet a not inconsiderable number of them probably are actually taking the vaccine, but then telling their friends and (especially) pollsters that they don't believe in them because that's what MAGA Republicans are *supposed* to say to look cool or something.

    2. cld

      It gives them incredible anxiety because it demonstrates with a little jab how not in control of their own biology they are and they'd rather fight than quit.

  8. CeeDee

    The vaccine can cause problems. My son had a bad reaction to the 3rd pfizer vaccine - he had had taken the first two without a problem. When they doctor saw his arm, he told my son not to get any more covid shots. My son is convinced that that vaccine gave him covid...don't know if the doctor agrees with that or not. He had a pretty bad case of the disease, but no hospitalization and no lasting effects.

    1. CAbornandbred

      I am sorry your son had a bad reaction. This is an anecdotal horror story though. One that anti-vexer's use to push their beliefs. Every medical treatment has a potential for an individual bad reaction. They list lots of them in their medical literature. It's the nature of medicine. There's no way to give any treatment to millions of people without bad reactions happening.

    2. jte21

      CAbornandbred is correct -- no vaccine (or medical treatment of any kind) is going to be 100% free of any side effects or bad outcomes, particularly when we're talking about millions and millions of doses. But the Covid vaccines are just about as close as we can get. People routinely take prescription medicines or have elective surgeries with a far higher risk of bad side effects than any vaccine. It's also physiologically impossible to have gotten Covid from an mRNA vaccine -- it doesn't work by using an inert form of the pathogen like some earlier conventional vaccines; instead, it trains the body's immune system to recognize a certain kind of protein that mimics the surface of the coronavirus cell and attack it.

    3. J. Frank Parnell

      You cannot get Covid from a mRNA vaccine, as it does not contain RNA for the entire virus, just for the spike protein. Vaccines do contain adjuvants, which are responsible for most of the side effects. Adjuvants are things that intentionally excite the immune system to enhance the body's immune response to the vaccine.

      1. roboto

        The Cleveland Clinic showed in 2022 that the more mRNA shots one takes, the more likely they will get Covid because immunity drops notably after each shot.

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