The most vaccine-hesitant group of all? PhDs!

Unherd ^ | 08/12/2021 | Staff

[Jan_Sobieski]

There has been much debate over how to get the unvaccinated to get their jabs — shame them, bribe them persuade them, or treat them as victims of mis- and disinformation campaigns — but who, exactly, are these people?

Most of the coverage would have you believe that the surge in cases is primarily down to less educated, ‘brainwashed’ Trump supporters who don’t want to take the vaccine. This may be partially true: the areas in which the delta variant is surging coincide with the sections of red America in which vaccination rates are lowest.

But according to a new paper by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, this does not paint the full picture. The researchers analysed more than 5 million survey responses by a range of different demographic details, and classed those people who would “probably” or “definitely” not choose to get vaccinated as “vaccine hesitant.”

In some respects the findings are as predicted — for example the paper finds that there is a strong correlation between counties with higher Trump support in the 2020 presidential election and higher hesitancy in the period January 2021 — May 2021.

But more surprising is the breakdown in vaccine hesitancy by level of education. It finds that the association between hesitancy and education level follows a U-shaped curve with the highest hesitancy among those least and most educated. People with a master’s degree had the least hesitancy, and the highest hesitancy was among those holding a Ph.D…

[gov_bean_ counter]

I guess they’re not as smart…

[Tell It Right]

Here in Alabama there is probably some overlap. Huntsville, AL has the highest engineer-to-worker ratio of all American cities. Many people there with PhD's in things like engineering, computer science, and mathematics.

And it's very much a Christian, red voting, Trump loving area.

[SmokingJoe]

Makes sense.

[nickcarraway]

Was this posted earlier and taken down?

[Jan_Sobieski]

I am a few post-graduate courses short of my Post Hole Digging degree, however it doesn’t require a PHD to protect your family from Experimental Shots derived from aborted fetal cells…

[SkyDancer]

Well if they insist there are more than two genders and that women aren’t the only ones who can get pregnant, I guess so.

[NoLibZone]

In two years the only people left in the US will be conservative Christians.

Vaxed sheep shall be gone.

Trust G’s plan.

[Jay W]

“Vaccine hesitant” is a propaganda term. Nothing else.

One may as well be arsenic hesitant, but no one’s ever called that.

You might be strychnine hesitant, but when was the last time you were called that?

[eyeamok]

So the Smart ones will repopulate the earth after the COVID Die Off

[nickcarraway]

Research prior to COVID-19 shows that anti-vaxxers were equally and evenly on the left and right. I have a hard time believing that all those anti-vaxxers on the left just decided they are okay with this vaccine.

[Bearshouse]

Majority of Physicians Decline COVID Shots, according to Survey

[SkyDancer]

Seems more pro-vaxxers are on the left - who are easily led.

[JouleZ]

That’s very good news. There is valid concern about the vaxxed infecting the unvaccinated with the Delta variant and patients seeking medical care shouldn’t have to worry about their healthcare provider, of all people, being a vector of disease.

[TigersEye]

There has been much debate over how to get the unvaccinated to get their jabs — shame them, bribe them persuade them, or treat them as victims of mis- and disinformation campaigns —

Who came up with those lame-brained strategies? That's the surest way to get the most people to resist.

[Retrofitted]

It finds that the association between hesitancy and education level follows a U-shaped curve with the highest hesitancy among those least and most educated.

Could that be because the "least" educated don't trust the government and the "most" don't trust the science?

[twogunpete]

For better or worse - I have a PhD, in an area where I spent some time studying both disease outbreaks and mRNA, and I did take the vaccine. It was a personal decision based on my own health history and the risks involved and for what it’s worth I had no adverse reactions.

I don’t support vaccine mandates and based on most PhDs I’ve met I wouldn’t look to them as people with better judgment than anyone else.

[The Fop]

More evidence that a large percentage of people with college degrees are a bunch of brown nosing sheep who internalized the message that “you’ll never amount to anything without a college degree”.

[wjcsux]

“Seems more pro-vaxxers are on the left - who are easily led.”
A lot of these people would have blindly followed the Nazis in 1930’s Germany.

[blam]

My PhD (physics) son was eager to get his COVID-19 shot.