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A recent survey found rural Americans are the least likely to take a vaccine for COVID-19 and the most likely to consider the innoculation as a personal choice rather than a social …
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A recent survey found rural Americans are the least likely to take a vaccine for COVID-19 and the most likely to consider the innoculation as a personal choice rather than a social responsibility.
Nearly 40% of rural residents who responded to the Kaiser Family Foundation survey said they were not worried that they or someone in their family would contract the virus, compared to 23% of urban residents; that was even though rural residents were just as prone as city or suburban dwellers to know someone who had been ill with or died from the disease, Kaiser found after polling 1,676 adults.
More than half of rural residents said getting a vaccine is a personal choice (62%) while in urban and suburban areas, the response that it was a social responsibility tipped the scales at 55% and 47%, respectively.
Dr. Aaron Billin, Park County health officer, said public health officials are seeing that metric mirrored locally.
“We are seeing somewhat similar attitudes locally as found in the Kaiser Family Foundation study,” he wrote.
Billin recently conducted an unscientific poll, soliciting participants via his Park County Wyoming Health Officer Facebook page. Of the 896 respondents, 48% — slightly higher than the national rural number — said they either had already received the shot or planned to take it, 35.8% were not planning to get vaccinated and 16.2% were waiting to make the decision.
However, Billin noted Thursday that the Park County interest in getting innoculated was outdistancing the availability of vaccine; sign-ups for clinics were temporarily paused last week, but more doses are expected this week.
“As the COVID-19 pandemic has been inappropriately politicized, it appears political party affiliation is a significant predictor of attitudes about the vaccine locally,” Billin said. “Regardless of one’s political affiliation, Operation Warp Speed (as facilitated by President Trump and the White House) has been one of the greatest accomplishments of medical technology. The development of a safe and 95% effective vaccine in under a year is remarkable.”
“We encourage all those for whom it is appropriate to take advantage of it,” he said.
