PhDs Are Now Most Likely to Be Vaccine Resistors

PhDs and high school dropouts least likely to bend the knee

Resistance in other groups has vaned but held constant in PhDs so that now they’re the front guard

A study conducted by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh has found that vaccine hesitancy has decreased among US adults by one-third between January and May 2021. While tentative people are concerned about COVID-19 vaccine safety and potential side effects, those with stronger views tend to distrust the government.

The researchers published their results on medRxiv, a preprint website, and announced their results today, ahead of peer-reviewed publication.

The researchers, Robin Mejia, special faculty at the CMU Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences and senior author on the paper, and Wendy C. King, associate professor of epidemiology in Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health and first author, reviewed the responses of approximately 1 million Americans per month to assess trends in vaccine acceptance. The researchers partnered with the Delphi Group at CMU, who run an ongoing national COVID-19 survey in collaboration with the Facebook Data for Good group.

The survey asked people whether they would take a vaccine were it offered to them today. People who said “probably not” or “definitely not” were considered to be vaccine hesitant.

Mejia and King analyzed the data by race, education, US region and Trump support in the 2020 election to assess time trends and how each group’s outlooks changed regarding vaccination. The data from May provides the current relationship between a broad range of factors and vaccine acceptance.

The largest decrease in hesitancy between January and May by education group was in those with a high school education or less. Hesitancy held constant in the most educated group (those with a PhD); by May PhD’s were the most hesitant group.

While vaccine hesitancy decreased across virtually all racial groups, Black people and Pacific Islanders had the largest decreases, joining Hispanics and Asians at having lower vaccine hesitancy than white people in May.

Those from counties with higher Trump support in the 2020 presidential election showed higher hesitancy, and the difference in hesitancy between areas with high and low Trump  support grew over the period studied. “This finding really highlights the politicization of public health recommendations,” said King.

“What’s concerning is there is a subset of the population that’s got strong levels of hesitancy, as in refusal to take the vaccine, not potential concern about it, and the size of that group isn’t changing,” said Mejia.

Among the most recalcitrant, commonly cited reasons included not trusting the vaccine and not trusting the government, while less hesitant groups were more inclined to explain they were waiting to see if the vaccine is safe. The researchers believe that different approaches are necessary to address these concerns.

“In all the other levels of vaccine intent we saw change over time. The lack of change in prevalence of the ‘definitely not’ group implies those with strong feelings about the vaccine are not likely to change easily,” said King. “Thinking about how to reach that group and having messaging and incentives that that group will respond to is important.”

The decrease in disparities by educational attainment and race was found. The researchers believe that targeted campaigns may have increased vaccine acceptance and access.

“There have been racial disparities in every aspect of the pandemic from how hard different communities have been hit by it to access to healthcare resources,” said Mejia. “There’s been concerns about access to vaccines in the rollout, and initially there was a wide disparity in acceptance of the vaccine, so to see over time that’s decreased was really encouraging.”

The study also highlights key differences in hesitancy by race and age subgroups. For example, in May, younger Black people are more hesitant than younger white people, while the reverse is true in older populations.

Generally, COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy was higher among young (ages 18-24), non-Asian people, and less educated (≤ high school diploma) adults, and those with PhDs, with a history of a positive COVID-19 test, not worried about serious illness from COVID-19 and living in regions with greater support to Donald Trump in the 2020 election.

The researchers hope that their detailed analysis, which also includes a review of reasons for hesitancy by racial group, will help policymakers identify vaccine-resistant pockets to ensure the country reaches herd immunity.

“Understanding the trends over the last several months is really important for projecting what may happen in the next couple months,” said King.

Survey respondents reported average education levels higher than the general population, and participants had greater vaccine uptake compared to the general population. This limitation suggests the percentage of people who refuse the COVID-19 vaccine is likely higher.

“I remain concerned about reaching the most hesitant subgroup of Americans,” said Mejia. “The only way to end this pandemic for real is to get enough people vaccinated that we can reduce the speed of new variants spreading.”

King and Mejia were joined by Max Rubinstein and Alex Reinhart at CMU in the study, titled “Time trends and factors related to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy from January-May 2021 among US adults: Findings from a large-scale national survey.” This research was supported by Facebook and a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention research grant.

Source: Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences

21 Comments
  1. ken says

    They are not “vaccine hesitant” but,,, but, this is not a vaccine! Yes, they ‘changed’ the definition of vaccine to include mRNA. So what! . They changed the definition of pandemic to make way for this fake disease. They changed Global Warming to Climate Change to suit their whims. If it would help them they would redefine the color of the sky.

    They ARE experimental RNA/DNA hacking flat out opposed. Most don’t give a crap if the Fraudci Death Agency approves or not.

    I myself have had many many vaccines especially while in the military. After the Swine flu vaccine killed approx 50 they shut it down as they should.

    So far in the US 13,500 dead. The EU and UK 21,000 dead and 5,000,000 other serious adverse reactions from the claimed safe and effective jab.
    Australia political fascists hide their numbers. It seems no amount of deaths or injuries will shut them down this time.

    And now they are after the young and so called parents are fighting to get to the head of the line. Australia herded 24,000 kids to a vaccination stadium (parents not allowed) and managed to kill three. We will never know full extent of any injuries.
    Some posters at other sites say they do not believe this because their is no official documentation. They actually expect the officials to be truthful after being constantly lied to for 18 months. Personally I would believe a 45 year Aussie Air Force retiree long before I would believe any health ‘expert’.

    I have offered a very well known pundit (PhD) who always claims “the virus is real” $500 fedbux for documentation showing the virus has been properly isolated and sequenced and proven it causes the disease Covid. This pundit claims to be a truth teller while accusing the rest of us as insouciant. So far, no reply. This is my second offer,,, the first was $100. He never replied.

    He may be sending my comments to the digital shredder as he has likely written me off as a nutcase. After all, only educated PhDs and such are allowed any credibility. IDK

    Well,,, Since the virus isn’t real,,, nothing else associated with it can be real. The CDC and WHO say they have no isolate,,, say the genome sequence was invented by computer. (inslico they call it)

    So how can anyone say its real. I have read many say they had the disease. How do they know?,,,, the MD told them so! Cut me some slack! How did the MD know? Because the misused PCR test was positive, run at 40+ cycles. And this is called confirmed! The symptoms are identical to the flu, bad cold or pneumonia. If you’re elderly they’ll shove a tube down your throat and blow your lungs out. Sound like caring people to you?

    Do you really,,, really believe the flu disappeared after being around every winter for thousands of years! (roflmao)

    They are lying out their ass and I do not understand why they are believed.

    1. Rightiswrong says

      Let’s remember the millions of people murdered by their governments when those governments issued AIDS infected blood products to the general public. I lost a good friend to that debacle, a Haemophiliac who was deliberately given an HIV contaminated blood transfusion.
      That was in the 1980s, the leaders of governments these days are even more evil and corrupt.
      The main thing here is though, these governments are not going to allow people to go un “vaccinated”, while they have already jabbed so many. It’s all or nothing with these scumbags.
      I’ve been refused treatment because I refuse to take a stick up my nose by a civil servant who next year will be doing street surveys while they await that posting in the Civil Service they have been promised if they just do what the Civil Servants of Nazi Germany did.

    2. spike says

      It really is disturbing how quickly and completely the masses have conformed and taken their poison without question. I was raised to always question the official narrative. The Governments have always done their best to take care of us right? The Elites never lie to us right? I certainly do not take medical advice from talking heads on t.v.

      1. Eileen Kuch says

        Yes, spike, it really is disturbing how quickly and completely sheeple have conformed and taken their poison without question. I, too, was raised to always question the official narrative. The governments have always done their best to take care of us, right? The elites never lie to us, right? I, too, certainly don’t take medical advice from the talking heads on TV; only the stupid. brainwashed sheeple do.

        1. yuri says

          amerikans poorly understand that Individualism (anglos the most individualistic societies) produces uniformity”. Philip Slater (parsonian)
          “what unites the slavophiles, Alexandr Herzen and the Marxists is the belief that western individualism is an enemy of individuality”. Vladimir Golstein (1999)
          even Riesman , liberal like the Marxists Sennet, Meszaros, etc described amerikans as “over conformist semi-automatons”. the anti-communist Arthur Koestler compared amerikans to 5th century Romans: “a similarly contactless society populated by automatons…a similarly soulless politically corrupt everybody for them selves society”
          “only in amerika do people act like machines are treated like machines and only in amerika are machine metaphors employed to describe human behavior”. Geoffrey Gorer
          Paul Fussell described the peculiar insecure anxious amerikan walking swinging their arms as “the walk of the lower middle class prole”
          even Johnny Depp observed after living in France, “amerikans do not know how to live”. “the danger in US was that everybody would be slaves—the present danger is that everyone will become robots”. Erich Fromm
          “the amerikan ideal is that everybody should be the same”. James Baldwin
          now achieved

          1. Doc C says

            Ah yes, the American punching bag. Truth is, you would live in America right now if you could.

      2. Steven Rowlandson says

        https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/75940-a-lie-told-often-enough-becomes-the-truth

        Of course the elites would lie to you and the reactionary right would tell you the truth about it and you would call them liars and attribute all manner of vice and atrocity to them because you can not bear to accuse a jew, globalist, democrat or a communist of wrong doing. There are no Nazis running the western world just their enemies.

      3. yuri says

        no surprise…Tocqueville observed that individualism produces a self doubting conformist antagonistic anxious people…the problem in USA is not the elites it is amerikans
        “amerikans do not converse, they entertain each other. amerikans do not exchange ideas (not taught in US graduate schools), amerikans exchange images. the problem with amerikans is not Orwellian, it is huxleyan: amerikans love their oppression”. Neil Postman

    3. Ron says

      “in silico”

  2. tunamelt says

    Injection rejectionist!

    1. yuri says

      tuna=thinking rejectionist

  3. Daz says

    People who can research and analyze data know not to risk the killshot? Who would have thought?

    1. Doc C says

      Bingo! That’s what makes this comment in their Results section so ludicrous, and clueless:

      “Thinking about how to reach that group and having messaging and incentives that that group will respond to is important.”

      Transparent phony messaging and (non)incentives are not going to be successful with “that” group, because that is why they are in that group. Either of my young granddaughters could predict that and explain why.

    2. yuri says

      utter stupidity—data irrelevant
      evidence is inadequate contradictory reading Covid origins, vaccine efficacy, consequences, etc

  4. yuri says

    hesitation regards thinking—adequate evidence does not yet exist regarding vaccines for c19
    as Schleimacher, Berdayaev, Hegel, Dilthey, Gadamer, etc all wrote, misunderstanding derives from prejudice and hastiness

    1. yuri says

      hilarious–2 idiot amerikan downvotes….more flattery from idiots unable to think
      the trailer park idiots reject vaccines like they reject thinking….the doctorates reject vaccines because they can think
      “busy busy numb amerikans cannot feel themselves alive unless they feel themselves busy. America is a vast goo of meaningless stimulation”. Thomas de Zengodita
      “speed obliterates the capacity to think”. Zygmunt Bauman, even admired by Giroux
      amerikans have become even more puritanical (idleness is the devil’s hand maiden) as the puritans wrote…now they protest for sexual repression—“me too movement”, described by 100 prominent French females in a letter in Le Monde as “puritanism”….apparently French females do enjoy sex

    2. Doc C says

      zzzzzzzzzzzzz

  5. RKae says

    “I remain concerned about reaching the most hesitant subgroup of Americans,” said Mejia. “The only way to end this pandemic for real is to get enough people vaccinated that we can reduce the speed of new variants spreading.”

    No, idiot, it’s the vaccines that CREATE the variants.

    1. Steven Rowlandson says

      It drives evolution in order to ensure the survival of the pathogen.

      1. Doc C says

        Yes, Virology 101

  6. Steven Rowlandson says

    I don’t blame people for exercising their right of self preservation by not being vaxxed. Instead I heartily approve of their strength of character and intelligence. Resisting liars and genocidal maniacs is a good thing. Rest assured granny won’t die if you don’t get vaxxed but if you do get vaxxed there is a very good chance you will die of the effects of the spike protein and not some lab virus with a kill rate lower than the flu.

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