Survey: Vaccine Hesitancy Declines among Faith Groups, Spurred Partly by Religious aApeals

Rates of vaccine refusal remained constant or even increased in some groups, however.

A new survey finds vaccine hesitancy has fallen among Americans overall and among all religious subgroups in just three months, with many who once balked saying they embraced inoculation against COVID-19 at the urging of faith leaders.

Many stalwart subsets of “vaccine refusers,” however, have barely budged, raising concerns as to whether they will ever get the shots.

The findings were released on Wednesday (July 28) as a collaborative survey conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Interfaith Youth Core. Researchers framed it as an update to a similar poll conducted in March that highlighted sizable percentages of Americans at the time who exhibited vaccine hesitancy, which PRRI and IFYC define as people who say they will either “wait and see” before getting a vaccine or who will only get it if required. Read More

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It is regretable that in the United States vaccination, face masks, and other public health measures have become politicized and rejection of these public health measures, a political statement. The COVID-19 coronavirus does not care if you are a Democrat, a Green, an Independent, a Libertarian, or a Republican. It does not care for whom you voted at the last election or whether your candidate won or lost. It takes advantage of every opportunity that presents itself to infect new hosts, to replicate, to multiply, and to spread. As it spreads, it mutates and produces new, more infectious, and more dangereous variants. In the Gospel of Mark Jesus says, "And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand." (Mark 3:25) As long as the United States is divided over the pandemic, the virus will continue to spread, causing untold misery and suffering, and to weaken the nation. Foreign actors are already exploiting the divisions over the pandemic toward tha later end. In my county the number of infected adults has not only  jumped but also the county health department is reporting a notable increase in the number of infected children, including infants under one years of age. Among the findings of recent studies of the effects of the virus upon human beings is that it causes brain damage. My county health department is urging adults to get vaccinated, if not to protect themselves, to protect the children.