Abstract
How do attitudes toward vaccination change over the course of a public health crisis? We report results from a longitudinal survey of United States residents during six months (March 16 -August 16, 2020) of the COVID-19 pandemic. Contrary to past research suggesting that the increased salience of a disease threat should improve attitudes toward vaccines, we observed a decrease in intentions of getting a COVID-19 vaccine when one becomes available. We further found a decline in general vaccine attitudes and intentions of getting the influenza vaccine. Analyses of heterogeneity indicated that this decline is driven by participants who identify as Republicans, who showed a negative trend in vaccine attitudes and intentions, whereas Democrats remained largely stable. Consistent with research on risk perception and behavior, those with less favorable attitudes toward a COVID-19 vaccination also perceived the virus to be less threatening. We provide suggestive evidence that differential exposure to media channels and social networks could explain the observed asymmetric polarization between self-identified Democrats and Republicans.
Highlights
Vaccinations are among the most important public health tools for reducing the spread and harm caused by dangerous diseases [1]
To better understand whether the decline in vaccine attitudes over time was driven by a particular factor, we used a data-driven approach, regressing all demographic characteristics on vaccine attitudes, in separate regressions
Income, and socioeconomic status (SES) were median split; race and gender were dummy coded; and political party affiliation was dichotomized into Democrat or Republican
Summary
Vaccinations are among the most important public health tools for reducing the spread and harm caused by dangerous diseases [1]. Participants who identify as Republican showed a decrease in their intention to get the COVID-19 vaccine and the influenza vaccine as well as a general decrease in pro-vaccine attitudes, whereas Democrats’ responses to these measures did not show a significant change during this period.
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