Study: One in five Dallas residents is opposed to getting COVID-19 vaccine – The Dallas Morning News

One in five residents in Dallas has no intention of getting the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a new study published this month in Scientific Reports.

More than half of these people say that nothing will convince them. Even assurance from family members or their doctors was unlikely to be persuasive.

Researchers conducted an extensive survey of more than 6,000 people nationwide in mid-April of this year, along with the same survey in four major U.S. cities: Dallas, New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago.

An estimated 19.7% of Dallas residents were opposed to COVID-19 vaccination, close to the national average of 21.4%. Unwillingness to get vaccinated was significantly lower in New York (10.1%), Los Angeles (11.5%) and Chicago (11.2%).

Vaccine refusal by such a large segment of the population is one of the problems were going to have in ending this pandemic, said Jeffrey Lazarus, a professor at the Barcelona Institute of Global Health at University of Barcelona in Spain and co-author of the study.

As Thanksgiving approaches, I think were going to see a spike in cases, and it will be particularly among the unvaccinated, he said.

While people of all stripes oppose getting vaccinated, those unwilling tend to be lower-income and lean conservative.

The findings are largely consistent with other public polling data, with one exception. The latest study found that race wasnt a consistent predictor of vaccine hesitancy, in contrast with previous findings that Black communities may be less willing to vaccinate.

These findings caution against demographic generalizations regarding vaccine acceptance, the study reported. Stereotyping racial attitudes could even lead to disenfranchisement of communities of color that are increasingly well-motivated to participate in vaccination programs.

The study was interesting because it compared major metropolitan areas with each other and the national average, but there wasnt anything here that I thought was remarkably surprising, said Austin Baldwin, associate professor and chair of SMUs department of psychology. Baldwin was not involved in the study.

Folks who are more politically conservative are more likely to be hesitant, he said, pointing to the recurring polling data published by Kaiser Family Foundation, or KFF, a nonprofit organization in the U.S.

KFF reported in late October that nearly 40% of Republicans in the U.S. still havent gotten a single shot. As a potential result, conservative-leaning states are now seeing a higher share of COVID-19 deaths.

Theres certainly political effects here, said Baldwin. This likely has to do with other messaging and sources of information and trust in different sources of information.

Lazarus, the studys co-author, points to mixed messaging were getting, including in Texas by political leaders as a potential problem. If all the political leaders came out and said they support the vaccine, that would certainly help.

Dr. Jerome Adams, who served as U.S. surgeon general during the Trump administration, spoke at SMU recently and addressed vaccine hesitancy. Many hesitant patients would move forward if their questions were answered by someone with compassion and trust, he told The News. But theyll shut down if approached too aggressively, especially with a political slant.

We need Trump people and Biden people to get vaccinated, he said. We need to engage them all.

In an emailed statement, Matt Rinaldi, chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, said: The Republican Party of Texas believes neither the government nor employers should force individuals to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. After weighing the risks and benefits specific to them, which vary widely by age and health status, the acceptance of any vaccine should always be left to the individual. Some Texans choose not to get the COVID-19 vaccine because of the potential side effects. That choice should be respected. Other Texans believe the benefits outweigh the risks. That choice should also be respected.

The Texas Medical Association has endorsed current COVID-19 vaccines as safe and effective. The organization is running an effort called Vaccines Defend What Matters that aims to address vaccine hesitancy and increase vaccination rates in Texas. According to the associations COVID-19 Vaccine Fact Sheet, out of the billions of vaccines already given, few instances of serious side effects have emerged.

At the same time, the survey indicates that the average U.S. citizen doesnt especially trust his or her government, said Lazarus. Many ignore statements by political or medical institutions, opting to instead trust misinformation they spot online that sows doubt about the vaccines safety and effectiveness.

For example, the study found that conservatives both nationwide and in Dallas are more likely to believe that the vaccines do not protect against COVID-19, a largely false notion, said Lazarus.

No one ever said the vaccine was 100%, he said. Airbags and seatbelts dont stop every injury. This is about harm reduction. The vast majority of cases are prevented, and symptoms are reduced.

Social media also likely exacerbates how political divides lead to different perceptions of the vaccines. There are almost different realities, said Baldwin, and certainly different ecosystems of information that people look at.

Though 63% of vaccine-resistant Dallas residents said that nothing will change their mind, that may not quite be true. The most likely thing to change their mind, though, is if they or one of their loved ones gets severely sick with COVID-19, said Lazarus.

There are also less tragic turns of events that may prove effective.

If I know of people I trust who have been vaccinated, and I see that behavior as more normative, that can change someones opinion, said Baldwin. Humans are very social. Were very responsive to that type of normative information. Someone frigid to the idea of getting vaccinated may warm up if those they trust begin to voice support or start emphasizing the vaccine as a remedy to the current public health crisis.

This is arguably one advantage of vaccine mandates. Not only does it obligate you to get it in one way or another, said Baldwin. It can also reinforce that this is OK. People I work with and trust are getting it.

If everybody masked and vaccinated in the U.S. over the next two weeks, the pandemic would largely be over in the U.S. Were vaccinated down now to age 5. There would be no one getting infected anymore, Lazarus said.

Vaccinating children, however, presents another barrier to widespread vaccination that the study didnt explore: hesitancy among parents on behalf of their children. That becomes a completely different kind of decision, said Baldwin.

Jordan Wilkerson is a science writer with a Ph.D. in chemistry from Harvard University. He was an American Association for the Advancement of Science fellow at The Dallas Morning News.

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Study: One in five Dallas residents is opposed to getting COVID-19 vaccine - The Dallas Morning News