White Republicans in Texas are the most hesitant about the COVID-19 vaccine

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Sam Webb says he is not against vaccines. Her children are up to date on their school shots, and she received a flu shot a few years ago, the driver of the Weatherford truck said.

But you won’t get any COVID-19 shots.

Webb, a former Army doctor, is among thousands of Republicans in Texas and across the country who say they do not trust COVID-19 vaccines and refuse to get them, even according to experts in public health and elected leaders that mass vaccinations are the key. to the return to normalcy of the pandemic that has dried up the nation for a year.

At the start of the country’s vaccine launch, experts warned that people of color, especially blacks and browns, could be skeptical or afraid of getting vaccinated. But in recent months, white Republicans have become the demographic group that has proven most dubious about COVID-19 vaccines.

In Texas, 61% of white Republicans and 59% of all Republicans, regardless of race, said they were reluctant to receive the vaccine or would refuse it outright, according to the University of Texas February poll. / Texas Tribune. This is not an insignificant portion of the state’s population: more than 52% of the state’s ballots in November were cast for former President Donald Trump.

According to the poll, only 25% of Texas Democrats said they doubted or refused to receive a shot of COVID-19.

Scientists and doctors stress that vaccines are safe and very effective in preventing the worst outcomes of COVID-19, including hospitalizations and deaths. No one has died from the vaccines, according to reports from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some people may experience short-term side effects, but these effects subside quickly.

But the trend among Republicans is nationally. A Civiqs poll updated in March indicated that white Republicans make up the largest demographic of people in the U.S. who continue to falter with 53% of people saying they were unsure about the vaccine or not.

Meanwhile, people of color have shown a growing confidence in the vaccine in recent months. In October 2020, 53% of black jeans said they would not get a COVID-19 vaccine, a percentage that fell to 29% when asked last month, according to UT / Texas Tribune polls. In comparison, 43% of Texas Republicans said they would not get the vaccine in October, compared to 41% last month.

Timothy Callaghan, an assistant professor of health policy management at Texas A&M School of Public Health, said Republicans’ greatest hesitation stems from distrust of scientists and an unfounded concern about the novelty of the vaccine.

“What you do find is that over time conservatives have been more hesitant than liberals, which you can largely attribute to higher levels of mistrust in the scientific establishment among conservatives,” he said. Callaghan. “However, the actions of certain political actors in recent years have intensified these beliefs within the party.”

For Webb, he said he believes it’s more about Republicans distrusting the government, “and that’s been a lot of pressure from government authorities.”

“I’m not against vaccines,” Webb said. “I’m against something that rushed so quickly.”

Scientists and medical experts say the corners for COVID-19 vaccines were not cut. Based on years of coronavirus research, combined with global collaboration and large funding infusions, COVID-19 vaccines were able to be developed rapidly. Each of the three vaccines approved so far in the United States was subjected to thoroughly reviewed clinical trials by the Food and Drug Administration.

“It wasn’t just something completely new,” said Dr. Philip Huang, director of human and health services in Dallas County. “It was based on previous research and development, but it represents a major scientific breakthrough.”

Compromise of herd immunity

Andrea Norman Harmon, a Springtown resident, said she is wary of the vaccine and trusts her Christian faith.

“I haven’t even done any research on it, because in my opinion there’s no way to 100% convince me that you can tell me what the effects are at five years old if I take this vaccine today,” said Harmon, a Conservative . Research shows strong evidence that mRNA vaccines, such as COVID-19 vaccines, will not cause long-term damage.

Harmon said he does not trust government officials, regardless of party. He will only vaccinate COVID-19 to his high school child if needed for school, even though his children are vaccinated for other diseases, he said.

“If she volunteers and stays volunteer, I will never get the vaccine,” she said. “If it’s about, I have to take it to keep my job. I’ll be in a strong prayer about what I have to do.”

This widespread mistrust in such a wide demographic is of particular concern to public health experts with the goal of achieving herd immunity.

“As long as there are pockets or segments of the population that are not vaccinated, vulnerabilities are generated,” Huang said. “We want everyone to take this public health measure.”

Epidemiologists estimate that they will achieve herd immunity, between 70% and 90% of the population needs to be vaccinated. Because vaccines are not approved for children under 16, that means virtually every adult in Texas.

“Not only is it Texas, but we look at some other states where a lot of them are Republicans,” said Jamboor K. Vishwanatha, founding director of the Texas Center for Health Disparities. “It’s a brutal fact: I mean it will affect everyone, because we will not be able to achieve the immunity of the herd. And with all these new variants that can come, it is possible that COVID will be with us in the long run. “

“COVID does not discriminate between political affiliation,” Vishwanatha added. “[But] unfortunately, it was politicized from the beginning ”.

Political rhetoric

Elected leaders, such as former President Donald Trump, have sometimes downplayed the severity of the virus while denigrating scientists who urged caution. Trump, who received the vaccine, did it off-camera and did not make a strong public push for Americans to be vaccinated.

Tasha Philpot, a political science professor at the University of Texas at Austin, said Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s messages have been lukewarm in his mind for Texans to be vaccinated. Abbott received his first live dose on television, but also stresses in his public statements that vaccines are “always volunteers“A nod to members of his party rejecting the vaccine.

Philpot said Abbott’s decision to end most state restrictions on COVID-19 earlier this month also sent a message to his party: The pandemic is over.

“It’s a signaling game,” he said. “I think if the signal had come from a credible source in their eyes, we would now have a completely different discussion.”

Abbott did not respond to a request for comment.

Many Republican officials are trying to appeal to two different crowds simultaneously: the Republican party is almost divided over attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccines, he said.

“The last thing they want to do is upset their base,” said Callaghan, Texas A&M’s professor of health policy management. “If Abbott came out with a full throat, saying everyone really has to do this in order to put the pandemic in decline and get back to normal and get Texas back as it should be, that could send a different signal to get more Republicans will vaccinate “.

Dallas GOP President Rodney Anderson stressed that the Republican Party is not a monolith: there are many who want the vaccine and there are several reasons why some do not want it. However, Anderson refused to share his personal views on the vaccine.

Anderson said most of his party colleagues have spoken to cite concerns that the vaccine was developing rapidly. He said he believes those who believe in conspiracy theories around vaccines or viruses are in the minority.

But Anderson said Republican Party leaders like Abbott and others have done an admirable job encouraging Texans of all political tendencies to get vaccinated.

“Statewide communication between the governor, the lieutenant governor to encourage individuals [to] “getting vaccinated, getting vaccinated, getting vaccinated” has been appropriate and has been effective, ”he said.

Acceptance of vaccines in communities of color

As the vaccine began to roll out, headlines and polls emerged indicating that people of color, especially blacks and Hispanics, hesitated more than other demographics.

However, over time these figures have changed. According to UT / Texas Tribune polls, the hesitation of Black Texans fell 24 percentage points from November to February.

Among Hispanic jeans, attitudes toward the vaccine differ depending on political affiliation. About half of Hispanic Republicans said they were against or unsure of receiving a vaccine, compared to 34 percent of Hispanic Democrats who said the same.

However, a higher percentage of Hispanic Republicans in Texas who were surveyed said they would be vaccinated than white Republicans.

The UT / TT poll did not receive a large enough sample of black Republican respondents to get meaningful results.

“Some initial surveys indicated that there were vaccine hesitations among people of color, but recent surveys show that sentiment has declined greatly,” Vishwanatha told the Texas Center for Health Disparities, which said the problem is more about access.

The feeling that blacks and Hispanics are less likely to want the vaccine is dangerous, Vishwanatha said, because of the disparities that persist. Black and Hispanic jeans already face disproportionately higher rates of dying or being admitted after being infected with COVID-19. And, according to state data, they are being vaccinated at much lower rates than white people.

Pushing this narrative that says “blacks don’t want the vaccine anyway,” blurs the fact that there is this racial divide when it comes to spreading the vaccine and who gets who has access to it, “he said. Philpot.

Also notable is the difference in the root cause of why people of color hesitate to get vaccinated compared to white Republicans.

“The big difference between these two groups is this unique mistreatment of the black community by the medical establishment, both historically and in modern times, which gives them an extra break to participate in a new vaccination program,” he said. dir Callaghan. “And that’s just not a reason Republicans are hesitant to get vaccinated against COVID-19.”

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