I’ve been one of the few people (perhaps the only one) who has noticed that, when you look at data, the popular misconception that anti-vaccinationism is not a left-wing phenomenon; in fact, it has a slight right-wing bias. Dan Kahan released a paper that shows there is no political bias in anti-vaccinationism–if anything, there’s a very slight right-wing bias:
The really good news is that most people aren’t worried about vaccine safety, which means increasing vaccination rates can focus on convincing people to find the time to get vaccinated, rather than combating anti-vaxxers.
Wish I could say the same thing about global warming though…
That graphic is confusing. What is the “risk” being measured? Does someone think the thing, whatever it is, is a high risk? Or does someone oppose it for some other reason, or?
And what do the spaces between the notches on the horizontal axis mean? I’m guessing there was some sort of Likert scale thing where people put themselves on a scale of attitude? In which case, there’s no space between, conceptually? Or if there’s some other way to label attitudes, that should be more clear.
There is one thing to say here: That they believe gun ownership is less risky than vaccines. Now granted, responsible gun ownership is fairly safe; however, even that has some risk and the outcome can be catastrophic. I don’t know the statistics but that just seems incorrect to me. That and hunting with Dick Cheney is fraught with danger. Moreover, if you are “very” conservative, you should have served at least one term in the military, and trust me, they pump you full of vaccines, regardless if you received them prior to enlistment or commision.
” Now granted, responsible gun ownership is fairly safe however, even that has some risk and the outcome can be catastrophic;”
No, it is completely safe to nearest approximation (TNA). There are 300-600 million guns in this country. All of them, TNA, cause no trouble to anyone at anytime for their entire lifetime when used responsibly.
Irresponsible gun ownership, OTOH, causes plenty of trouble, injury, and death. Hunting with Dick Cheney should be illegal.
Vaccines can not make such a claim – there are adverse reactions to vaccines. The vast majority of them are not serious, but some can cause significant discomfort for a day or three, and very rarely some can have serious ramifications. Including extremely rare outcomes that could be thought of as catastrophic.
. Since the first National Vaccine Injury Compensation (VICP) claims were filed in 1989, 3,477 compensation awards have been made. Over $2.6 billion in compensation awards have been paid to petitioners.
Every one of them was using vaccines responsibly.