Public sentiment on the importance of safe, lifesaving childhood vaccines has significantly declined in the US since the pandemic—which appears to be solely due to a nosedive in support from people who are Republican or those who lean Republican, according to new polling data from Gallup.

In 2019, 52 percent of Republican-aligned Americans said it was “extremely important” for parents to get their children vaccinated. Now, that figure is 26 percent, falling by half in just five years. In comparison, 63 percent of Democrats and Democratic leaners said it was “extremely important” this year, down slightly from 67 percent in 2019.

  • Rapidcreek@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Recently at a doctors visit, this came up. We were discussing the use of AI to design vaccines. Doctor said that it didn’t make any difference because people like his staff nurses wouldn’t take a vaccine in any case. I was shocked. So, he opened the door and asked his nurses. Sure enough, not one nof them would take a new vaccine. I still can’t believe it.

    • Persen@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Well, to be fair, recently released vaccines are fairly untested, but it’s mostly fine, so I wouldn’t worry about it too much.

      • Rapidcreek@lemmy.world
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        I suppose this falsehood started with the Covid 19 Vaccine. In early January 2020, labs received the first computerized model of the Covid virus. Due to the current level of science, and smart people, the vaccine was finished in six days. The rest of the year was taken in testing for FDA approval until it was made publicly available in December of 2020. It was well tested.

    • JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      My mother has worked in healthcare most of her life and it’s always blown my mind how many people she’s worked with are anti-vax.

      • ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com
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        3 months ago

        It helps to think of healthcare as just another business in the US.

        It’s become such a huge industry. People aren’t necessarily there because they believe in the science, but because of all the typical mundane reasons to get any job - stability, income, prestige or appearance of status.

        But yes, it’s crazy.

    • stoly@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Lockdown taught me that most nurses receive an inadequate education. There were big antivax nursing groups 3 years ago.

  • Media Bias Fact Checker@lemmy.worldB
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    3 months ago
    Ars Technica - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)

    Information for Ars Technica:

    MBFC: Least Biased - Credibility: High - Factual Reporting: High - United States of America
    Wikipedia about this source

    Gallup - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)

    Information for Gallup:

    MBFC: Least Biased - Credibility: High - Factual Reporting: Mostly Factual - United States of America
    Wikipedia about this source

    Search topics on Ground.News

    https://news.gallup.com/poll/648308/far-fewer-regard-childhood-vaccinations-important.aspx
    https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/08/31-of-republicans-say-vaccines-are-more-dangerous-than-diseases-they-prevent/

    Media Bias Fact Check | bot support

  • auzy@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    They are also probably the same wankers who waste Blood banks time telling them they should set up “pure blood” donations or whatever.

    Because I’m sure in an emergency, hospital staff have time to dick around and appease grown toddlers.

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        3 months ago

        Nah, they might repeat that as a talking point but they’re down with fascism, just like they’ll bitch and moan about the pharmaceutical companies having a profit motive to lie without wanting to remove the profit motive from healthcare.

        They’re just liars and hypocrites who want their team, Team Racists and Bigots, to have total control and never forget it.

    • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      It’s not always political, but it’s always stupidity, and stupidity is worse on one side than the other.
      You know, like facts having a liberal bias.

    • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
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      My theory is that it’s a combination of lead poisoning from going to NASCAR races (which still used leaded gas until 2007 or so) and right wing media indoctrination, mainly Fox News.

      • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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        My theory is that it’s a combination of lead poisoning from going to NASCAR races (which still used leaded gas until 2007 or so) and right wing media indoctrination, mainly Fox News.

        FTFY

      • Billiam@lemmy.world
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        Better just list what isn’t wrong with them, because it’s a much shorter list.

        Here, I’ll show it to you:

    • rambling_lunatic@sh.itjust.works
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      Total embrace of the paranoid style of politics.

      A couple decades ago, these people would be ranting about how the reds are adding fluoride to the water to make American patriots infertile.

      Previously, the paranoid style was less prominent. By acquiring control of large sectors of the media, a strategically important asset, they have widely propagated conspiratorial thinking at a scale that has never been seen before in the USA.

  • emrebfg@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    My dad contracted polio as a teen a year before the vaccine came out in our home country. Fuck people who think vaccines are dangerous. Ask my dad how well his legs work.

      • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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        3 months ago

        Vaccines are dangerous. The probability of vaccines progressing from phase 2 to licensure within 10 years was 10.0%.

        Your cited evidence does not support your claim of danger. Safety is demonstrated in phase 0. After determining that the vaccine isn’t particularly dangerous, phase 1 is for determining dosage and side effects, and phase 2 is for determining efficacy.

        Safety is demonstrated in the first few months, but the FDA doesn’t (normally) approve something just because it is safe. It also has to be effective. During the pandemic any degree of effectiveness would save lives, so emergency approval was justified.

        The 90% of vaccines that failed to gain approval were not dangerous. They failed because they were ineffective.

        • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Ok, X% of vaccines that are developed are abandoned for safety reasons.

          My point is that vaccines are not automatically safe, they are rigorously tested before they are licenced.

          • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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            3 months ago

            I think what you’re saying is reasonable, but the way you’re saying it is uncomfortably close to how antivaxxers present their arguments.

            I would say that if it doesn’t pass phase 0 (safety trials), it can’t even be considered a vaccine.

            • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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              Unfortunately antivaxxers have completely polarised any discussion on their topic. Anything even mistaken for being negative towards vaccines is automatically down voted.

              I would argue that development of a vaccine starts long before the trial phases. They aren’t like viagra where you target something different and accidentally end up with a vaccine after trials.

              Vaccines are not safe because they are Vaccines. They are safe because they are designed and tested to be safe. (Also, safe is a relative measurement but that discussion is too easy to misinterpret)

              • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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                3 months ago

                I would argue that development of a vaccine starts long before the trial phases.

                I would argue that its safety or danger at this stage is irrelevant. You can’t go down to your doctor and request to be vaccinated with one of these products: they are not available to the general public. It is disingenuous to argue that they are “dangerous” when they pose no actual danger.

                The vaccines you can get from your doctor are safe.

                • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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                  Yes, safety is only relevant when a vaccine is tested on live subjects, but it is still a vaccine, even before testing.

                  Vaccines from a doctor have been tested to filter out treatments with dangerous side effects. It is not disingenuous to recognise that this filtering has occurred nor discuss the reason why.

        • wicked@programming.dev
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          During the pandemic any degree of effectiveness would save lives, so emergency approval was justified.

          What? Pretty sure the requirement of effectiveness was at least 70%, and the approved vaccines had a >90% effectiveness. Obviously as the virus mutated the effectiveness nosedived, but they were very effective against the original strain. (edit: Effectiveness versus getting infected at all, not against serious illness and death, which remains good)

      • sudo@lemmy.today
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        I guess 20 years ago this was a scandal

        Another factor in Obama’s favor at the time that Rogers didn’t mention is that the original Republican candidate, Jack Ryan,[6] had been forced to suspend his candidacy after his divorce and custody records were released to the press, revealing that he had taken his former wife, actress Jeri Ryan,[7] to various sex clubs (including, in at least one case, a bondage club) and tried to have her perform sex acts on him out in the open.[8] Keyes was the GOP’s last-minute replacement on the ticket after the sordid details of Ryan’s divorce came out.

  • teamevil@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    31% of Republicans so stupid their genes should be prevented from being passed down

    • sudo@lemmy.today
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      Yeah, nothing could go wrong with a little eugenics…

      edit: those who down voted this should truly reflect on their humanity.

      • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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        Eugenics is when one group of people dictates the reproduction of another group of people.

        Natural selection is when one group of people fails to survive due to inferior decision making, while better decision makers carry on their germlines.

        Refusing vaccinations based on conspiracy theories, and dying of disease because of it is 100% natural selection.

        • sudo@lemmy.today
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          Except the comment I replied to says

          Their genes should be prevented from being passed down

          One group (the commenter I’m replying to) dictating the reproduction (‘should be prevented’) of another group (dumb republicans).

          • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
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            Yeah, no one said natural selection is kind and fair.

            If you want to talk forced vaccination I’m personally okay with it but that’s the reality of the situation, it won’t be solved otherwise.

  • Chocrates@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    This is gonna be the real maga legacy. A generation of kids that have to deal with the consequences of horrific, preventable, disease

  • DandomRude@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I don’t find that particularly surprising considering that this demographic votes Republican.

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    3 months ago

    Great and terrible example of the power that the right wing media bubble has on people and the damage it can cause. This isn’t a political issue or a matter of opinion. This is objective and scientific, with extensive real world evidence of vaccines eradicating contagious diseases.

    Vaccines are perhaps the single greatest public health breakthrough next to basic sanitation. People have been convinced of an objective, scientific falsehood that puts their own children and the public at large at risk of disease and death. This is brainwashing, full stop.

    Antivaxxers existed before COVID, but they were the fringe. It’s now a mainstream Republican belief manufactured out of thin air because COVID was bad for Trump politically and any improvement in the pandemic post-election was good for Biden. The stark partisan split proves it.