MADISON, Wis.– The decision of whether or not to get vaccinated is personal, polarizing, and often, political. The latest Washington Poll/ABC News poll shows less than 50% of Republicans have or plan to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, compared to 93% of Democrats.
In Wisconsin, the issue isn’t so ‘red and blue.’
UW Political Science Professor Mike Wagner has been studying COVID-19 behaviors since last fall and says data from the latest vaccine poll confirms his research. Partisanship, more than race, age, income, or any other factor, is the best predictor of whether a person chooses to get the vaccine.
“The biggest predictor of vaccine hesitancy was believing Donald Trump had won the election,” Wagner said, citing his research. “Lots of Republican political elites and conservative news outlets like Fox are raising doubts about the vaccine, while getting it themselves.”
This is what Wagner calls “confusing”: why some Republicans continue to publicly question the vaccine, while privately getting it themselves.
This disparity is evident in Wisconsin, too. In Dane County, where Democrats dominate, 66% of people are fully vaccinated. In Republican-leaning suburbs, Wagner says people are getting vaccinated, choosing scientific information over ideology, although the rate is not as high. 53% of people in Waukesha County are fully-vaccinated. That is, however, significantly higher than rural counties like Clark and Taylor, where only one-quarter of people have received one dose of the vaccine.
Click here to find out what percentage of your county is fully-vaccinated.
“One reason for that is people in those (suburban areas) have a richer information diet,” said Wagner. “They’re more likely to be newspaper readers. They’re more likely to look at information that’s not just from their own ideological side.”
Is there anything that can be done to change unvaccinated Wisconsinites’ views?
Even local doctors, like UW Health’s Jeff Pothof, acknowledge they’re not always the best messengers. That’s why they’re challenging everyone who is vaccinated to share their reason ‘why’ with an unvaccinated neighbor, family member, or friend.
“When I hear from people who are vaccinated, they say it’s so nice to get back to normal,” said Dr. Pothof. “It’s so nice not to worry.”
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