The two most monumental events of the last year in the US were the election of Joe Biden to the presidency and the introduction of Covid-19 vaccines. Yet there are those who falsely believe Biden won only because of fraud or that they shouldn’t get a vaccine. Having either belief […] Read more »
Vaccine hesitancy morphs into hostility, as opposition to shots hardens
… What began as “vaccine hesitancy” has morphed into outright vaccine hostility, as conservatives increasingly attack the White House’s coronavirus message, mischaracterize its vaccination campaign and, more and more, vow to skip the shots altogether. The notion that the vaccine drive is pointless or harmful — or perhaps even a […] Read more »
POLITICO-Harvard poll: Americans sharply divided over vaccine mandates
Americans are almost evenly divided over whether schools or most private employers should require Covid-19 vaccinations as part of reopening, according to a POLITICO-Harvard survey that shows how politically fraught any kind of mandate would be. Most Democrats support forcing employees and students to be vaccinated before they return to […] Read more »
How long-standing mistrust of government is hurting our vaccination efforts
Americans have lacked trust in the federal government since the 1970s. From the late 1950s until the Watergate scandal, a majority of Americans said they trusted the federal government to do the right thing most of the time. But since then, it’s been a minority (with the exception of the […] Read more »
A third of White conservatives refuse to get vaccinated — a refusal shown in polling and the real world
… A Washington Post-ABC News poll released over the weekend shows a stark divide in vaccination hesitancy by political group. Overall, about a fifth of Americans say they definitely won’t get vaccinated. That’s about the percentage for independents and Whites overall. But among Republicans and White conservatives, the figure is […] Read more »
How older Americans show us the vaccines work
Covid-19 cases jumped 10% in the United States over the last week and the Delta variant could become the dominant strain. The variant is more transmissible than most other strains, but we also know that vaccines work well against it. There is clear evidence that the vaccines work well in […] Read more »