Posted on 12/21/2022 3:55:07 PM PST by nickcarraway
The magnitude of prejudice and aversion against individuals refusing COVID-19 vaccination was detailed in three studies spanning 21 countries.
In data from the U.S., vaccinated people were 16 percentage points (95% CI 14-19) more likely to have antipathy toward those who remain unvaccinated than toward the vaccinated.
"Incompetence" was endorsed 14 percentage points more often and "untrustworthy" 13 percentage points more often by the vaccinated about the unvaccinated, Michael Bang Petersen, PhD, of Aarhus University in Denmark, and colleagues reported in Natureopens in a new tab or window.
"The conflict between those who are vaccinated against COVID-19 and those who are not threatens societal cohesion as a new socio-political cleavage," co-author Alexander Bor, PhD, of Aarhus University, said in a press release. "The vaccinated clearly seem to be the ones deepening this rift."
Unlike the attitudes expressed by vaccinated persons, the study authors did not find that unvaccinated people expressed discriminatory attitudes toward vaccinated people (with the exception of some negativity among unvaccinated respondents in Germany and the U.S.). "But we do not find statistical evidence in favor of negative stereotyping or exclusionary attitudes," the study authors noted.
A 'Natural' Reaction?
In these situations when people feel they have made a sacrifice to get vaccinated in part to protect others, they may have a strong reaction to those who are not willing to do the same -- "what they perceive as free-riding on a public good," Petersen warned in a press release. But this could have "severe consequences for society."
"In the short run, prejudice toward the unvaccinated may complicate pandemic management because it leads to mistrust, and we know that mistrust hinders vaccination uptake," he said. "In the long run, it may mean that societies leave the pandemic more divided and polarized than when they entered it."
Punitive public policy is not necessarily effective, the researchers argued, and can create a "cleavage" between members of society with different attitudes. They cited the example of French President Emmanuel Macron, who said he wanted to "piss off" the unvaccinated population to a degree that will make them get vaccinated.
"While moralistic communication of collective responsibilities may be an effective strategy to increase vaccination uptake, such strategies may have unintended negative consequences in the form of eliciting prejudice, especially in cultures with strong cooperative norms," Petersen and co-authors wrote, which "may have negative long-term effects ... hurting well-being, eroding identification with majority society, and breeding mistrust of the state, including health authorities."
However, the language used in the study, including the word "prejudice" and "discrimination" may evoke the wrong public reactions to the information, commented Maxwell Smith, PhD, a public health ethicist at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario.
"You can be exclusionary for the right reasons, or bad reasons," he told MedPage Today in an interview.
"Consider whether we'd say women who refuse to have sex with men who are unwilling to wear a condom have 'exclusionary attitudes' or that they're being 'punitive.' No, we wouldn't," Smith said. "It's fine to want to protect your health, and there are scientific reasons to believe ... condom-wearing will protect your health."
He expressed concern that people might take certain findings from the study out of context to suggest this form of discrimination is "just as bad" as other discrimination, whereas "there is no suggestion that it's morally bad" to discriminate.
Peterson told MedPage Today that the reaction to the study on social media has perhaps added fuel to the divisiveness. Although the study "does not speak at all to the vaccination decision itself," he said that "we are seeing very strong endorsement from people who are skeptical of vaccination and so on."
Rather than using the results to debate vaccine attitudes, Smith said, the findings should help develop better public policy.
Peterson agreed that it's important to communicate to both groups in a way that decreases tension as much as possible and called on authorities to mitigate punitive attitudes.
Study Results
Combining data from three studies involving 15,233 people from 21 countries, the researchers found that, around the world, vaccinated people were prejudiced against unvaccinated people.
In the U.S. specifically, the vaccinated were 10 percentage points (95% CI 8-12) less likely to respect an unvaccinated person's "right to residence," such as to live in their neighborhood, and 8 percentage points (95% CI 6-10) less likely to support an unvaccinated person's application for citizenship. They were 28 percentage points (95% CI 25-31) more likely to agree that the unvaccinated should have limited freedom of movement (for example, not being allowed to sit beside them on a bus).
Further, vaccinated persons were more likely to not respect unvaccinated people's freedom of speech (e.g., on social media) or support social assistance benefits for them (difference 7 percentage points for both, 95% CI 5-9).
All those response differences were statistically significant (P<0.001).
The studies were conducted through experimental methods, including the use of the "Dictator Game," in which participants reported emotions and allocated resources accordingly. Questions were asked in different ways, such that participants were both asked to rate their agreement with statements like "I would be unhappy if this person married one of my close relatives" and were forced to respond to a decision scenario on the same issue.
The researchers noted that the experimental nature of the studies was a limitation. Also, since the studies were performed online, it's not clear to what degree their responses would carry through to real-world attitudes and actions.
Notably, the studies were conducted "while the vaccine-evading Omicron variant was dominant, and vaccine-induced immunity against infection spread was waning," the researchers noted.
Ingrid Hein is a staff writer for MedPage Today covering infectious disease. She has been a medical reporter for more than a decade. Follow
So what? Who knows who is vaxed up and who isn’t.
Mud bloods are jealous of our pure blood.
lol
In a year or two, best case, this won’t matter at all. It’s only because of the political pressure, graft, media hyperbole, “vaccine mandates”, “vaccine cards to enter” etc that created such a schism. In a year or two it would be like saying you hated people who didn’t get a flu shot.
Worst case, well, the unvaccinated may have a lot of anger on behalf of and sympathy towards the vaccinated.
It seems like some people do have negative attitudes towards the unvaccinated.
A newspaper poll, about a year ago, in a small town in Oregon, over 70% of those polled said people who do not get vaxxinated should lose their jobs.
Now you know why Oregon is screwed up, bunch of tyrants.
With the last election, the democrats felt empowered enough to
phase out the sale of petrol cars in Oregon.
They should take the survey the other way around: What do the unvaccinated think about the vaccinated?
If they lapse in their “boosters”, the “vaccinated” become the unvaccinated pariahs they loathed. They can’t live with themselves without being hypocrites.
.
It’s the Oprah psychology
They believe whatever is said on TV and they lash out on anyone that doesn’t accept it.
They used the same thing with Ukraine. Twitter dump showed Propaganda Pentagon accounts that were protected and promoted - and not to be fact checked.
It’s Mob psychology.
They overwhelm and demonize any opposition.
.
Still an’t getting the clot shot vaxx. Threatening me or trying to guilt me is not going to work. The authors and those promoting the shot, including Fauci, can feel free to take all my shots for themselves. I do not mind at all.
just like the vaxine passports, the fallout will happen soon when ALL the countries depending on tourism take a huge hit for locking down the unjabbed!!
Otherwise known as brainwashing.
If the eye-popping number of unexpected unattendeds popping up in my local obits are any indication, there will be fewer people to complain.
Now that more and more vaccinated people are coming to the conclusions that we were right all along, and are now angry because of their future health outlook. But instead of being angry toward those who forced them to be injected with immunity destroying, DNA altering clot shots, they choose instead to be angry towards us who warned them from the beginning.
We didn’t take the “vax” and we will never do so under duress.
Period.
L
I’m unvaxxed and just got over a mild case of COVID.
What does that make me? Gold, I’m guessing.
Negative? They can kiss my azz.
Yes, there's a lot of that going on, I believe. Many are angry because that serves to ameliorate their own sense of having been played for fools.
And some are simply frightened by what the future might hold for them, in terms of their long-term health.
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