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Covid vaccine hesitancy does not seem to be about poor education, nor about poverty. The visible antivaxx activists are well-to-do people. Distrust of governme

Covid vaccine hesitancy does not seem to be about poor education, nor about poverty. The visible antivaxx activists are well-to-do people. Distrust of government and authorities is a big factor. You have much more vaccine hesitancy in the U.S. than in Nordics (high-trust societies); Russians and Bulgarians are extremely sceptic of their governments, and extremely sceptic of vaccines. https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&facet=none&pickerSort=asc&pickerMetric=location&Metric=People+vaccinated&Interval=7-day+rolling+average&Relative+to+Population=true&Align+outbreaks=false&country=FIN~NOR~DNK~RUS~USA~BGR https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explor...

hairofadog 5y ago
I agree with the spirit of your comment, but I'd argue it's even more specific than distrust of government; I think it's mostly tribalism, at least in the U.S. I imagine if Trump had reacted differently to the pandemic (acknowledged it was a thing at the beginning and urged or mandated vaccines) I think you'd see a high vaccination rate within his base and a different demographic altogether showing their distrust of government.
- kyleee 5y ago
  Trump recommends the vacccine and his administration facilitated (or at least got out of the way of) an unprecedented development and rollout
- ptaipale 5y ago
  Surely it is tribalism, but are you now giving a demonstration? I have seen Trump boast about vaccines, in his usual distasteful way. I have seen him recommend vaccines. I have not seen him disparage or discourage vaccinations (though he's been extremely clumsy, as he was with everything). It seemed to me that originally, when Trump boasted about the vaccines, his political opponents (the Democrats in US, and others elsewhere) were the ones who were sceptical about vaccine development - simply because of this tribalism. (Note: I'm not American, not in either tribe.)

hairofadog 5y ago

I agree with the spirit of your comment, but I'd argue it's even more specific than distrust of government; I think it's mostly tribalism, at least in the U.S. I imagine if Trump had reacted differently to the pandemic (acknowledged it was a thing at the beginning and urged or mandated vaccines) I think you'd see a high vaccination rate within his base and a different demographic altogether showing their distrust of government.

kyleee 5y ago
Trump recommends the vacccine and his administration facilitated (or at least got out of the way of) an unprecedented development and rollout
ptaipale 5y ago
Surely it is tribalism, but are you now giving a demonstration? I have seen Trump boast about vaccines, in his usual distasteful way. I have seen him recommend vaccines. I have not seen him disparage or discourage vaccinations (though he's been extremely clumsy, as he was with everything). It seemed to me that originally, when Trump boasted about the vaccines, his political opponents (the Democrats in US, and others elsewhere) were the ones who were sceptical about vaccine development - simply because of this tribalism. (Note: I'm not American, not in either tribe.)