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.

  • @DocMcStuffinOP
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    1251 month ago

    Vaccines shouldn’t be political. What is wrong with some Republicans?

      • Billiam
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        1 month ago

        Better just list what isn’t wrong with them, because it’s a much shorter list.

        Here, I’ll show it to you:

    • @Buffalox
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      221 month 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.

    • @someguy3
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      111 month ago

      It’s part of “don’t trust gubment”.

      • @[email protected]
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        91 month 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.

    • @Boddhisatva
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      91 month ago

      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
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        41 month ago

        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

    • @[email protected]
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      1 month ago

      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.

    • @SGGeorwell
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      1 month ago

      It’s the group with the least information. They’re morons.

  • @[email protected]
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    1071 month ago

    These idiots are not only harming themselves and their children, they’re harming and sometimes killing others who are medically prevented from receiving vaccinations. These scumbags are literally spreading disease.

    • @Krazore
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      301 month ago

      Actually it’s worse than that, if you have enough unvaccinated people in an area you’ll increase the viral load received by the local population. Vaccines raise immunity significantly, but don’t make you fully immune. If you experience enough of a viral load despite being vaccinated you can still get sick. This is how outbreaks occur and why we’re seeing them in low vaccination communities. These viruses then spreads to others that shouldn’t normally get the virus. So in short it harms everyone including those vaccinated.

  • Transporter Room 3
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    1 month ago

    Every time I see some of my relatives, I make sure I bring up “oh, by the way shouldn’t I be dead now? You made a pretty big fuss about how everyone who was vaccinated [would] be dead within a year”

    It’s always met with eye rolls and silence.

  • @[email protected]
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    631 month ago

    That number is… eerily close to the percentage population estimated to be hardcore unshakeable Trumpers.

      • @[email protected]
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        71 month ago

        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.

  • @emrebfg
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    471 month 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.

    • @Phegan
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      101 month ago

      Same, but my mother.

      • @[email protected]
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        1 month 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.

        • @[email protected]
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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)

        • @Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In
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          -31 month 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.

          • @[email protected]
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            31 month 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
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              01 month ago

              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)

              • @[email protected]
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                1 month 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
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                  01 month ago

                  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.

          • @capital_sniff
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            11 month ago

            And often times 100% of solutions are the last thing tried.

  • @teamevil
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    401 month ago

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

    • @[email protected]
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      1 month ago

      Yeah, nothing could go wrong with a little eugenics…

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

      • @[email protected]
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        281 month ago

        Fortunately, this is a self sorting problem, it’s not eugenics when it’s natural selection.

        • @bitchkat
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          51 month ago

          but they affect people who can’t get a vaccine for legitimate medical reasons.

          • @[email protected]
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            31 month ago

            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.

        • @TrickDacy
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          -61 month ago

          No worries, they contradicted you so they must be a sHiTlIb

      • Todd Bonzalez
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        121 month ago

        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.

        • @[email protected]
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          31 month ago

          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).

  • Convict45
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    321 month ago

    I suppose it’s good news that this belief hurts them the most, but it’s also a public health problem.

    • @Chocrates
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      151 month ago

      Yeah, their children will be wracked with disease complications and the whole country will be on the hook to help care for them.

      • @[email protected]
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        131 month ago

        Even worse, it forms a reservoir of disease that the most vulnerable of the population, those who have not/cannot be vaccinated, will suffer tremendously from.

  • BigFig
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    1 month ago

    I sincerely hope that 31% of Republicans contract Polio. Then maybe they’ll shut the fuck up

    • @frickineh
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      101 month ago

      If we had a way to quarantine them all together so they can’t infect their unvaccinated kids, or anyone else who didn’t ask to participate in their bullshit, I’d be fully on board. Unfortunately, we saw what those dipshits did with COVID.

  • @[email protected]
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    261 month ago

    Wait until tetanus starts being a real issue again. It’s actually pretty scary shit. In advanced stages it can make your muscles contract and spasm so hard your bones can fracture.

      • @[email protected]
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        71 month ago

        That’s true, but I figure it’s common enough and an entirely preventable illness.
        It’s one of those examples of the vaccine working so well that the population completely forgot how bad it can be and that it’s a very slow and terrible way to die.

        • @[email protected]
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          21 month ago

          Yeah, my only point was more that at least the antivaxxers will only be hurting themselves and (unfortunately) their children, not risking other people like with covid

  • @Chocrates
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    241 month ago

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

  • @Rapidcreek
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    231 month 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.

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

    • @JusticeForPorygon
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      131 month 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.

      • @[email protected]
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        51 month 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.

    • @Persen
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      -41 month 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
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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.

          • @Rapidcreek
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            51 month ago

            There are known complications with flu shots too. In the end you have to answer the question for yourself. Are you going to chance complications and get a polio shot. Or are you going to sit in a wheelchair for the rest of your life? I think you’ll find that the FDA judged these to be minimal probabilities.

            • @Persen
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              -11 month ago

              I am vaccinated against the coronavirus, but for flu, it’s just too much work.

              • @Rapidcreek
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                51 month ago

                Flu is just a pain in the ass. Until you get older.

  • @ATDA
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    201 month ago

    There’s this constant 30-35% of America. Get better lower third god damn.

    • @Kayday
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      31 month ago

      15-20%, since less than half of the US votes republican.

      • @RedAggroBest
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        21 month ago

        Considering the number of unregistered and independent voters… Very well could be less than that.

  • @[email protected]
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    161 month ago

    In comparison, 63 percent of Democrats and Democratic leaners said it was “extremely important” this year, down slightly from 67 percent in 2019.

    Well, that’s disappointing. As someone who has spend many years in Europe, it’s no wonder the rest of the developed world sees the US as dumb as a bag of rocks. It’s just an unreal circus looking from the outside.

    • @UnderpantsWeevil
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      41 month ago

      We’ve seen a bonanza of quack medicine in the US over the last few decades. Homeopathy, chiropractory, ivermectin, gay conversion therapy, MyPillow, sci-fi style medbeds… All this shit getting pushed hard by con-artists who suffer little to no pushback and reap enormous financial returns from a gullible audience. And that sets off a vicious cycle of more nefarious advertisements, more hoaxes, more political enablement, and more people lured to their deaths for the profit of others.

      Americans aren’t simply stupid by their nature. They’re deliberately and systematically misinformed over entire lifetimes by a well-financed propaganda machine.

      • @themaninblack
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        21 month ago

        The anti-vaccine movement is easily the biggest tragedy of our time. The consequences have not yet hit in earnest.

  • @DandomRude
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    141 month ago

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

  • @ZagamTheVile
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    131 month ago

    The good news is that number will go down over time.

        • @mightyfoolish
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          21 month ago

          This one can actually work though. Vaccines don’t make you 100% immune from diseases (it also depends on the individual as well).