Republican Men Are Vaccine-Hesitant, But There's Little Focus on Them

Republican Men Are Vaccine-Hesitant, But There's Little Focus on Them

In December, Arizona Republican state Rep. Mark Finchem suffered from flu-like symptoms—headache, fatigue, body aches and chills. But it wasn’t the flu; he tested positive for COVID-19. Nearly three months later, his mother, who had recently contracted the coronavirus, died after battling throat cancer for over 40 years.


Those circumstances weren’t enough to persuade Finchem, who is in his early 60s, to get a Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech or Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. Finchem remains skeptical, he said, because he distrusts the federal government and top public health officials, he’s heard mixed messages about the vaccines on social media and television news, and he worries about long-term side effects.


“I’m very suspicious that what they put in the [vaccines] is nothing more than a cocktail,” Finchem said in a phone call with Stateline. “Time will tell, and I hope I’m proven wrong.”


As federal and state government entities ramp up vaccination efforts, polls show increased confidence in vaccines, especially among people of color, who have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 and were, at least initially, more skeptical of the vaccines. Vaccine hesitancy persists across all demographics, however.


About 13% of American adults don’t want a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Republicans are the most resistant; nearly 3 in 10 say they don’t want one. The share is greater among rural, Republican men, 35% of whom don’t want to get a vaccine.


So far, more than 200 million complete doses of COVID-19 have been administered in the United States, which amounts to about 34% of U.S. adults being fully vaccinated. The percentage of vaccinated adults needed to ..

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