“Why wouldn’t you do it?” Alarm as Republican men say they will not get Covid vaccine | Republicans

“I just feel that God made us, made our bodies in such a wonderful way that we can practically do our own vaccination,” Holloway, 75, told The Guardian. “We are equipped to do it in most cases. I just don’t see the need for it.

Holloway is among the millions of potentially Republican men who say they have no plans to get the coronavirus vaccine. According to a recent NPR / PBS NewsHour / Marist survey, 49% of Republican men told pollsters they wouldn’t get the shot; the survey is part of recent analyzes claiming that vaccine reluctance is highest among this population.

This data has sounded the alarm for disease experts, who have struggled to fight Covid-19 amid the relentless politicization of public health policies, such as the often Republican opposition to the masking of mandates and trade regulations and frequent boasting of conspiracy theories.

“How such a large proportion of a certain group of people wouldn’t want to get vaccinated just for political reasons… it just makes no sense,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the US infectious disease specialist, recently. “What’s the problem here? It’s a vaccine that will save lives for millions of people.”

While some powerful Republicans have urged people to get vaccinated, mixed messages persist among some conservatives. Fox News host Tucker Carlson recently criticized the Biden administration’s vaccine outreach efforts, saying, “If you want them to take the vaccine, don’t berate them, don’t issue. more orders, calm their fears by rationally explaining the benefits and risks. vaccine. “

The Beaumont Foundation, an organization aimed at improving public health, organized a think tank on March 13 to understand Republicans’ opposition to vaccines. The group consisted of 19 members, men and women, who identified themselves as Republicans. The selected participants had “answered” maybe “or” probably not “when asked if they would receive a Covid vaccine”.

Group leader Frank Luntz, a veteran Republican pollster, asked attendees: “When I say Covid-19 vaccination, vaccine … what do you think of first?” A man replied: “A miracle, although suspect.” One man said “rushed” while another said “experimental”. One man said, “Don’t hold my freedom hostage.”

Alec Tyson, associate director of research at the Pew Research Center, said there is a “similar dynamic” between the partisan divide over beliefs about the threat of Covid-19 to public health and attitudes towards vaccinations. “Republicans have been much less concerned than Democrats” about the risk of Covid-19 to public health, Tyson said. “Intention to vaccinate is one of the main correlates to this attitude.”

When researching the intent of the vaccine, Tyson said researchers at Pew asked those who are not currently planning to get the vaccine why.

Of those who weren’t planning on getting the shot, Tyson said Republicans in this group “are more likely to tell us they don’t think they need it than Democrats who don’t plan to get it.”

Panayiota Kendeou, professor of educational psychology and Guy Bond reading chair at the University of Minnesota, said that while some hesitations about vaccines were “predictable,” some were “also type-specific. from the political climate, to the way the pandemic has been handled in the United States and around the world, and the politics that has clouded the waters a bit in terms of decision-making and the consequences of our decisions ”.

Kendeou explained that the reluctance to vaccinate has traditionally been favored by a number of known factors and said that “the main one is our perceived risk of infection”. Perceived side effects are also critical when people think about whether to get the vaccine.

“In the content of the Covid-19 vaccine, these perceived health risks in terms of actually contracting the disease, along with fears about the side effects of the vaccine, have gained political direction,” Kendeou said. “We have therefore seen, for example in the United States, certain groups being more or less afraid of the Covid-19 virus and casting doubts on the seriousness of the pandemic. Of course, this has resulted in the kind of breakdown in vaccine reluctance that we are seeing. “

Loren Anthony Williams – a self-proclaimed “moderate conservative” who says “I am by no means a fervent and die-hard Trumper” – replied “probably not” when asked if he would receive the Covid-19 vaccine.

Williams, who works in the medicinal marijuana industry, said he was not an “anti-vaxxer or anything like that” but remains skeptical, saying the hit was rushed with a healthy dose of politics involved, because Trump was trying to get him out. there in November before the elections ”.

Asked later about politicization, Williams explained, “I think it was very politicized by Trump. Name it Operation Warp Speed, do whatever it takes to get it out before the election. While Trump “had the welfare of the country in mind,” Williams said, he also had political goals. Williams said his personal political beliefs had not played a role in his skepticism about the vaccine.

The 35-year-old Detroit resident also said: ‘I don’t need it because I’m a fairly healthy younger person, and if I got coronavirus I would be fine without the vaccine. I would overcome it on my own.

“For the elderly or at risk, I would not discourage them from getting the vaccine. It is their choice. It would probably benefit them much more because they are at greater risk, ”Williams continued, saying her elderly parents had already received the vaccine.

When asked if there was anything that could influence his opinion, Williams replied “maybe”.

“Because I’m neither a chemist nor a biologist, maybe if I knew how it was made and how it was made, I might change my mind.

However, some Republicans are skeptical of the statistics on vaccine reluctance among party men. Andrew Bilardello, who runs a Republican club in The Villages, a large retirement community in Florida, told The Guardian: “The majority of people here are registered Republicans, and the majority of people here are getting the vaccine.”

Bilardello, a retired police chief, pointed out that Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis visited the area last week and touted Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine, and that he recently announced the lowering of the vaccination age. Bilardello, 63, has said he will receive the jab from Johnson & Johnson.

“I pass the vaccination sites and I have to tell you: every day that I pass there are lines of people to be vaccinated,” Bilardello said. Everyone cares, everyone wears masks… For the majority of people here in the villages, they take the pandemic here very seriously.

Joe Martin, a Republican from Georgia, said he had seen no hesitation about vaccination among his peers. He said people who didn’t get it had access issues, but didn’t hesitate.

“All the people I know, we all go to dinner because we had the chance,” said Martin, 77. “Once you get the photo you’re free to socialize and do all kinds of things. Why wouldn’t you want it? “

Despite reported levels of hesitation or increased resistance to vaccines, there is evidence that minds can change.

Dr Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, provided five facts about Covid-19 to participants in de Beaumont’s virtual focus group. Among the facts: more than 90% of the doctors who were offered the vaccine decided to get it. At the end of the focus group, 16 said they were more willing to get the shot, the organization said.