State vaccine rates fall along red, blue divide | TheHill
By: Peter Sullivan (TheHill)
polls consistently show that Republicans, particularly men, are more hesitant than Democrats to get vaccinated
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The U.S. vaccine map looks a lot like a map of how states vote in presidential elections, with most blue states vaccinating at levels well above the national average and GOP states bringing up the rear.
The politics of COVID-19 have been partisan from almost the onset of the pandemic, and polls consistently show that Republicans, particularly men, are more hesitant than Democrats to get vaccinated.
The deep-blue state of Vermont has the highest share of its population with at least one vaccine dose, at 65 percent, according to data compiled by The New York Times, followed by Massachusetts, Hawaii, New Hampshire and Connecticut.
The top 21 states for vaccination rates all went for President Biden with 47 percent of its population receiving at least one shot — is the highest ranking state on the list, at No. 22, that voted for former President Trump.
The state with the lowest vaccination rate, Mississippi, at 32 percent, is deeply red, as are the other four states that round out the bottom five: Louisiana, Alabama, Wyoming and Idaho.
"It does appear to be the case that states that voted for Biden in the 2020 election, in general or on average, appear to have higher vaccination rates than states that voted for Trump," said Jennifer Tolbert, director of state health reform at the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Survey results reveal a big reason why. An NPR-PBS-Marist poll this month found that 41 percent of Republicans said they are not going to get vaccinated, compared to just 4 percent of Democrats who said the same.
"Our country is profoundly politicized," said Monica Gandhi, an infectious diseases expert at the University of California, San Francisco, in explaining the gap in vaccination rates.
There are also some intriguing anomalies in the data. Pennsylvania, a swing state that voted for Biden last year, has a vaccination rate of 55 percent with at least one shot, exceeding the national average of 47 percent.
Meanwhile, two other states that voted for Biden — Georgia and Arizona — are at 37 percent and 44 percent, respectively.
Doug Heye, a Republican strategist, said those figures could align with the view that the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia were more of an "anomaly."
"I still view Georgia as a Republican state," he said.
Experts caution that there are other factors at play in vaccination rates. Tolbert, of the Kaiser Family Foundation, said Pennsylvania's higher rate is not necessarily a reflection of it trending more toward Democrats but could be due to other variables like the efficiency of its vaccination campaign.
Megan Ranney, a public health expert at Brown University, said another factor is that red states tend to have less well-funded public health infrastructure, which could make getting shots in people's arms more difficult.
"There certainly is a difference, but that doesn't explain all of the difference," she said. "It's not just politics."
Shobita Parthasarathy, a public policy professor at the University of Michigan, noted that some states with rural and urban areas also face challenges.
"Michigan is sort of a purple, leaning blue, state and you have less vaccination in the more rural areas but you also have less vaccination in Detroit," she said, noting that hesitancy can come from different groups.
Like many swing states, Michigan is more toward the middle of the pack when it comes to vaccinations.
Given the hesitancy among Republicans, discussion has swirled around getting Trump to more actively encourage vaccinations. The former president has said he recommends getting the shot but has not made that message priority. And when he received his shots as president, he did not do so on camera like many other world leaders have done.
Heye noted that Trump will be speaking to the North Carolina Republican convention on June 5 and said it could go a long way if he gave a push for vaccinations in his speech. The state party could even offer shots on site, Heye suggested.
"That could be a big boost," he said.
The White House has been looking to get local doctors more involved in the vaccination campaign, given that many people tend to trust their own doctor over government officials.
Paul Beck, an emeritus professor of political science at Ohio State University, said his state's relatively low vaccination rate, at 43 percent, comes at a time when Republicans have been doing increasingly well in what was once consistently the nation's biggest battleground state.
"There are a lot of people in Ohio, maybe a majority these days, who are sympathetic to the Trump side of things," Beck said.
"Obviously, Republicans are more hesitant to get the vaccine," he added.
Gandhi, the University of California expert, said the new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week that vaccinated people do not need to wear masks in most places could serve as an incentive for more people to get the shot.
While the guidance was scientifically sound, "they're also trying to motivate," she said of the CDC.
Ranney, of Brown University, worried that some states won't improve their vaccine rates, and that the country will "have persistent differences in vaccination rates."
"For those Southern states, they're all heading indoors to air conditioning," where the virus spreads more easily, over the summer, she said. "I am concerned about those states."
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meh, I'm only concerned about liberals and independents in those states. they should avoid old white men with maga hats and crazed looks in their eyes.
"The U.S. vaccine map looks a lot like a map of how states vote in presidential elections, with most blue states vaccinating at levels well above the national average and GOP states bringing up the rear."
Just like everything else, the gop and gop/states are always 'bringing up the rear'
Is that what they're calling it these days?
I have no problem with a virus that mutates into something that takes out only morons.
Me either! I'm all for it.
You do realize that the virus and it’s consequences are far more prevalent in large blue cities, don’t you?
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Me too! In all the big cities… careful what you wish for…
If you are here to troll, and it's starting to look that way, I'm telling you now it won't be tolerated
You do realize that's a lie, don't you?
Buy a clue. . . .
A variation of "Darwin's Law"...???
Basically, the concept is that people kill/injure themselves to the point where reproduction is no longer possible whilst doing something surrealistically stupid. By insuring that their stupid genes to not spread, they ultimately help humanity . . .
But sometimes, they reproduce before they do something lethally stupid. So the "stupid" genes are still out there. And let's face it, there's a lot of stupid around.
And a vowel.
I love these "awards" and the runner-up stories are hilarious too.
Stupid is as stupid does.
Getting vaccinated in the US military is still voluntary.
Perhaps Biden, as Commander-in-Chief, should make the shots mandatory
no need to throw more gas on the mentally defective conspiracy-nuts bonfire.
Or we can let natural selection weed out some of the stupid.
It's not working so good, so far.
It never does. Not really.
hopefully when the trump rallies start up again that will be reversed...
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Are you absolutely certain of that? Herman Cain died of COVID shortly after attending one of those superspreader rallies
Nope, it was yet another trumpturd superspreader rally that took out poor Mr. Cain. Shame.
Link?
He likely already unknowingly had it by the time of the rally. Also that was an indoor not an outdoor rally.
too bad his hero had convinced him that he wouldn't need a mask, huh? bwah ha ha
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All the vaccinations I got in basic training all those years ago, I don't remember hearing that any of them were optional.
Personally I think there's too much tribal politics in this. I got my shots, didn't change my DNA at all (damn the luck).
Tribal politics? Thank whatshisname, trumpturd, for that.
But you probably have at least half dozen microchips floating around your blood stream now, so the gubernet can monitor your every move.
Me, neither. I was told to roll up my t-shirt sleeves and walk the line. Came out bleeding and pissed off
I just wanted that third eye in the middle of my forehead. Unfortunately, it would probably need a bifocal lens, too
I could wish it so but my home wifi hasn't changed at all. So I'm beginning to think I got a placebo. I even took a drive out to the local nuke power plan in hopes of picking up some fresh gamma rays to jumpstart things but it didn't make any difference. I did get excited one morning, woke up and thought I saw horns growing out of my head. Turned out to just be bed head.
Think I'd prefer it on the back of my head to see anyone sneaking up on me.
We got cheated, Snuffy
Well, there is GOOD bed head.
And BAD bed head.
The typhoid shot in BCT made me so sick that I threw up for two days. I still ended up getting Typhoid years later as the shot was not effective for the strain I got. When I was at Target Towers during Desert Storm, we were notified that we would be given an experimental shot to combat certain chemicals and I told them no thanks. I didn't get in any trouble by refusing.
Same here, I have been vaccinated for pretty much everything under the sun (anthrax and smallpox included) and am just fine. Got my second round of the COVID yesterday too, bit of a headache today but nothing too bad.
I know right? I keep looking out my window to see some strange sedan or SUV following me around, but alas, nothing for the last 17 years...
They use satellites now. They used to use SUV's, but couldn't handle all the calls about their car warranties.
Since the [deleted] vaccines were approved on an emergency basis they are still considered to be experimental and thus no one can be coerced into participating in a medical experiment. I voluntarily made that choice.
[deleted]
Why do you feel the need to emphasize where it came from?
I got one in tech school because technically I was going overseas even tho it was Alaska. Felt pretty bad that day, but I was better the next day
[deleted]
You do it in the groups where you are welcome to seed and yes, they all call it that name. This is not one of those groups and I don't appreciate it or like it and I have that prerogative. Nobody's forcing you to comment here. Did you bother to check where you were making comments before you let loose?
There have been a lot of the craziest conspiracy nuts attempting to spread this one: (Trump's ass-kissers ain't goin' away any time soon!)
As Covid-19 Vaccine Microchip Conspiracy Theories Spread, Here Are Responses On Twitter
Is this a microchip off the old block situation?
You know all those Covid-19 vaccine microchip conspiracy theories that have been spreading since last year? The ones claiming that vaccinations are actually injecting tiny devices that will allow everyone to be tracked? Well, such theories have since spawned a whole new phenomenon that seems to be going a bit viral itself: jokes about vaccine microchips. Yes, when those go-to “knock knock” jokes don’t seem to be working anymore on a date or at a party, there’s a whole new category of one-liners that you can now “inject” into your conversations, so to speak.
The Covid-19 vaccine microchip conspiracy theories began emerging last year even before the vaccines became available. The theories maintained that vaccination was just an excuse to inject some type of microchip into you that could then allow someone to track you and your behaviors. For example, such claims appeared in the conspiracy theory-loaded “Planet Lockdown” video, which I previously covered for Forbes . And, as described by the Associated Press , Sandoval Iñiguez, an emeritus archbishop of the archdiocese of Guadalajara, had posted a video on Facebook in which he spoke of “the chip that they are planning to put in the vaccine to control you, it is the mark of the beast.” Of course, it is ironic that he posted the video on Facebook, one thing that is definitely tracking you.
...uh, they're not kissing his ass, they're tonguing it during mushroom dick's down time.
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[deleted]
I'm not sure he can currently.
I read an article back when vaccines first came out, that they could not be mandated because the FDC has only approved them on an emergency basis. Once they have gone through full FDA testing and the standard approval process, healthcare systems and the military can then make them mandatory.
As CIC, he could make the armed forces comply, but I doubt he could for the general population.
Maybe, but the vaccine is one step above "experimental". As CIC, his orders must still be lawful.
I don't know, was hoping someone might be a lawyer that could confirm or deny it.
And if he did you would be here whining that he is trying to be a dictator.
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I was thinking that too.
I seem to remember a case where the families of three inmates complained that they reused the same needles during the executions. Their main complaint was the possibility of an infection.
I still don't understand why they swab the site where the needle is going
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Me either. It is a waste of antiseptic and gauze pads.
What freedoms?
Ask the censor that removed very much on topic post that you responded to…
It was not on topic. And calling me a dictator doesn't help your cause
[deleted]
Spam Heated Discussions with that shit but don't litter my house with it. Got it?
There! Now I sound like a dictator
[deleted]
You didn't list any in that post.
pity the poor trumpster, so desperate for attention.
None are being limited. I have the exact same freedoms now as I did before the pandemic. I have yet to see one freedom be revoked.
The only freedom I lost was going to my local bar for an occasional beer and a game of pool. I survived..
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Even though they are primarily the ones insisting we should be singing Donald Trump's praises for said vaccine. They need to make up their goddamn minds.
we should all be encouraging that specific demographic to resist any peer pressure..
You would think that when Typhoid Donnie turned the WH into a petri dish, they would be climbing over each other to get vaccinated.