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+--- Thread: Research Views of science help explain partisan differences over vaccine safety & effectivenes (/thread-21619.html)
Views of science help explain partisan differences over vaccine safety & effectivenes - C C - Oct 19, 2026
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1148192
EXCERPTS: How Americans view science and scientists is strongly associated with whether they think vaccines are safe and effective — and helps explain partisan differences in perceptions of some vaccines, according to a new study led by a team from the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania.
Researchers found that Democrats viewed the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), flu, and Covid-19 vaccines as safer and more effective than Republicans did. But when the researchers accounted for respondents’ broader perceptions of science and scientists, the partisan differences for the MMR and flu vaccines were no longer statistically significant.
That wasn’t the case with Covid-19. Even after accounting for perceptions of science, political affiliation remained significantly associated with how people viewed the Covid-19 vaccine, highlighting the extent to which it has become politicized.
“The Covid-19 vaccine really stands apart,” said lead author Dror Walter, an associate professor of communication at Georgia State University and an APPC distinguished research fellow. “With MMR and flu, views of science and scientists largely explain the partisan gap in perceptions of vaccines. With Covid-19 they don’t. Something beyond how people see science and scientists is shaping how Democrats and Republicans judge that vaccine.”
The study, published this month in the American Journal of Public Health, was conducted by a team that also includes Yotam Ophir, an associate professor of communication at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, and an APPC distinguished research fellow; Patrick E. Jamieson, director of APPC’s Annenberg Health and Risk Communication Institute; and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director emerita of APPC.
[...] One factor stood out. Seeing science as beneficial was consistently associated with believing that all three vaccines were both safe and effective. Other perceptions — including scientists’ credibility, prudence, and lack of bias — were associated with some vaccine evaluations but not others.
[...] he findings come amid concern among public health experts about vaccine hesitancy and declining childhood vaccination rates. They also suggest that vaccine communication should not treat hesitancy as a single phenomenon: People may respond differently depending on the vaccine, its history, and the political environment surrounding it.
The results suggest that “science communicators should tailor messages based on the specific vaccine addressed, accounting for each vaccine’s history and perceptions of its safety and effectiveness, as well as the political affiliation of the target audience,” the researchers write.
For the Covid-19 vaccine in particular, the researchers suggest that communications may need to address concerns about scientific bias. Messages could explain the mechanisms science uses to identify and correct for bias, although the authors emphasize that future research is needed to test whether such approaches are effective...(MORE - details, no ads)