Posted on 12/02/2022 3:25:36 PM PST by nickcarraway
The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.
The big idea
Children of nurses who identify as Republican are less likely to receive a COVID-19 vaccination compared with children of nurses who identify as Democrat, according to our recently published study in the Journal of Community Health.
We surveyed more than 1,000 nurses in South Dakota in June and July of 2022. Of those, 298 participants reported having children 5 to 17 years old. We asked this group about the vaccination status of their children and found that the children of nurses who identified as Democrats had a 13% higher probability of being vaccinated compared with the offspring of nurses who identified as Republican.
The timing of our survey only allowed us to measure the vaccination intention of parents of children from 6 months to 4 years old, since authorization of COVID-19 vaccines for that age group occurred just days before the survey. Of the 123 nurses who reported having children 6 months to 4 years old, those who identified as Democrats had a 14% higher probability of intending to vaccinate their children compared to self-identified Republicans.
Additionally, we found that those nurses who received a COVID-19 booster dose were more likely to vaccinate their children. On the other hand, gender, education and type of nursing credential had no effect.
Why it matters
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccination for children has been a contentious issue. In our study, we found that polarization among nurses split along political party lines in a similar fashion to the general public.
Despite the wide availability of safe and free COVID-19 vaccines for children and adolescents in the U.S., vaccination rates for people under age 18 are lower than for adults. As of Nov. 30, 2022, more than 60% of children remain unvaccinated.
Though children tend to be more resilient to COVID-19, there are still significant risks. The Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention has reported more than 1,500 deaths of children under 18 from COVID-19, as of late November 2022. And children are susceptible to “long” COVID symptoms as well.
Nurses – and other health care workers – are at the forefront of efforts to contain COVID-19. They also advise patients who are deciding whether to vaccinate themselves and their families. Our study shows that among nurses, political partisanship appears to influence their attitudes toward vaccinating their own kids.
Public health officials are striving to boost COVID-19 vaccination rates. Yet the politicization of the pandemic continues to hinder these efforts.
Increasing vaccination rates among children will also protect the most vulnerable members of society, such as older adults and people with weakened immune systems. Nevertheless, some parents continue to resist vaccinating their children.
Our study shows that parents make COVID-19 vaccination decisions for the entire family. We found that nurses who received a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine are more likely to vaccinate their children and adolescents. However, the nurses who haven’t received a booster dose are far less likely to vaccinate their children.
What other research is being done
Our findings align with other research carried out by ourselves and others that shows the strong influence of partisan self-identification on COVID-19 attitudes and behaviors.
Other studies we’ve done show that Republicans are less likely than Democrats to receive a COVID-19 vaccination and are less likely to support mandatory COVID-19 vaccination. We also found that nurses who identify as Republican are less likely to receive a COVID-19 booster dose.
Our study joins a growing body of work that seeks to explore the factors behind COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among health care workers. Other studies have linked race and ethnicity, as well as trust in government, physicians and pharmaceutical companies, to the attitudes of health care workers toward COVID-19 vaccination.
What’s next Given the politicization of the pandemic and the erosion of trust in authorities, it’s important that messages encouraging the vaccination of children come from trusted sources.
Our previous research suggests that religious leaders can help encourage compliance with COVID-19 prevention measures. In the future, we plan to investigate whether endorsements from trusted community leaders could convince parents to vaccinate their children.
No surprise, liberals worship government and will obey.
This Christian nurse worked in NICU and stopped vaccinating with her first after the MMR. I worked in a research hospital so I did my own. I also followed Anthony Patch and knew what was planned, just like all the people before 2000 knew the voting machines could be hacked. Over 2 decades later, and people are surprised with the mess.
Could you elaborate?
“...Donald Trump who was allegedly a Republican president created and pushed the vaccine...”
Knowing what he knew at the time - a probable Chicom bioweapon (or precursor), of unknown lethality or mutability - a vaccine that he was told was “safe and effective” by people who should know, I don’t fault his actions.
Trump ‘pushed’ the vaccine, at first, when he was following the advice of his traitorous medical advisors, Fauci and Brix. He changed his tune when the facts came out.
biden was always only following whatever was best for him to maximize his political power.
My infant went limp in my arms just after getting the MMR, and the nurse immediately leaving the room. I thought I was going to be doing CPR. They’d never heard of such a thing, and it’s unlikely they reported it. The office stopped doing vaccinations and was sending patients to the health department as it was around the time the laws/coverage changed, so he wasn’t unique and that decision may have been unrelated. The chicken pox vaccine was in development at the time with a very vocal Jewish doctor saying, “no!” By that time, I’d moved “across the street” to the Jewish hospital with my head nurse to upgrade their unit, so we were paying attention, and I’d read the notable literature compiled about vaccine harm. The roll out of the Hep. B, HPV, and flu vaccines have kept me paying attention through the years, and Anthony Patch put it all together as to the added technology. The microbiology makes sense, as they present it, but the practical application... ticket to genocide.
The interesting part is the author said safe, but did not parrot the usual effective. Breakdown in the programming? Oversight? Editor?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.