MIT Study: Vaccine Hesitancy Is ‘Highly Informed, Scientifically Literate,’ and ‘Sophisticated’

PJ Media – by Rick Moran

Vaccine hesitancy is a big problem, according to the Biden administration.  Less than half the public is fully vaccinated while about 56 percent have received at least one jab.

The goal of fully vaccinating the American public appears to have stalled. This should not surprise us. When the vaccines were first approved for emergency use back in December 2020, 40 percent of Americans expressed skepticism about the vaccine.

Trying to shame the holdouts has failed spectacularly. Insulting and degrading them as “morons” or “ignorant” has resulted in a vicious pushback and a hardening of positions on getting vaccinated.

The administration’s plan of sending people door to door to vaccinate them only feeds anti-vaccine skepticism. Trust in authority is at an all-time low, which makes a government-sponsored vaccine program suspect.

Still, most experts agree that some people who should be getting vaccinated aren’t doing so. But the root cause isn’t ignorance or a belief in conspiracy theories. An MIT study on the problem revealed some surprising results.

NRO:

Proponents of the vaccine are unwilling or unable to understand the thinking of vaccine skeptics — or even admit that skeptics may be thinking at all. Their attempts to answer skepticism or understand it end up poisoned by condescension, and end up reinforcing it.

The condescension is political in nature and crosses party lines. Sometimes, arguments against vaccination are mistaken for irrational thinking.

Sometimes the perception of irrationality is almost accidental, because arguments are usually social interactions, not strictly logical exercises. A vaccine skeptic may brush off a proponent by saying, “It’s approved for emergency use only; it’s not FDA-approved. I don’t think we should require it.” The skeptic is beginning with a fact that’s easily established and shareable. But when pressed, they might reveal that their line of thinking is elsewhere: “There are no long-term studies, and I’m worried about possible long-term effects.” Because the two objections aren’t exactly logically connected, the proponent concludes it is irrationalism all the way down.

But a study done at MIT showed that a substantial portion of public-health skepticism was highly informed, scientifically literate, and sophisticated in the use of data. Skeptics used the same data sets as those with the orthodox views on public health.

The study’s lead author, Crystal Lee, says those same exact data sets can be used by either side to marshal arguments.

MIT News:

The researchers combed through hundreds of thousands of social media posts and found that coronavirus skeptics often deploy counter-visualizations alongside the same “follow-the-data” rhetoric as public health experts, yet the skeptics argue for radically different policies. The researchers conclude that data visualizations aren’t sufficient to convey the urgency of the Covid-19 pandemic, because even the clearest graphs can be interpreted through a variety of belief systems.

“A lot of people think of metrics like infection rates as objective,” says Crystal Lee. “But they’re clearly not, based on how much debate there is on how to think about the pandemic. That’s why we say data visualizations have become a battleground.”

In fact, because of the data sets being used interchangeably, vaccine skepticism becomes logical and rational.

But most vaccine skepticism, if by that we mean reluctance, is not based on conspiracy theorizing — it’s based on risk-benefit calculations. You may think it’s an innumerate calculation. But when you look at patterns of uptake in the United States, two factors stand out, factors that are larger in their effect than partisanship: age and density. The older you are and the denser your community, the more likely you are to be vaccinated. The younger you are, and the more rural your community, the less likely you are to have gotten it. This reflects the real facts about the risk of death from COVID. People may be wildly overestimating their risk from the vaccine and underestimating their risks from COVID — but they have the directional thinking correct. Those who are in less danger, act like it.

This is why vaccine choice is so important. Why have the same mandate for someone who lives in New York City and someone who lives in rural South Dakota?

PJ Media

4 thoughts on “MIT Study: Vaccine Hesitancy Is ‘Highly Informed, Scientifically Literate,’ and ‘Sophisticated’

  1. At first (from the title) I thought this article was looking out for those who don’t want the poison, that it was written in our defense, but alas, it upholds and validates the hoax.

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    1. That is correct, I followed and read thru the interactive narrative that this study went into depth on.

      It is a well crafted propaganda piece at best, pretending to provide for an impartial narrative.

      Total hokum

      it misses the simple common sense interpretation of what we are able to learn and research from a first hand personal position.

      Ie’, The fkn Facts:…………………..Please debate these things, not some fkn Pie charts of some fkn Gobbledygook

      #1. Dr Kary Mullis, no where to be found in there “research”, this is the inventor of the PCR DNA Amplification process as most of us are aware.
      This alone if you look into this man, his Nobel prize winning invention and his own words, completely invalidate this entire Covid 19 HOAX as it can only be….there can be no contest to this man (Doctor) and his invention and personal statements. It is clear without debate, the thing they call the Gold Standard “TEST” is No Such thing and easily manipulated in an Up or Down Positive or Negative results manner. No Question! how convenient he died 2 months before Fauci and Gates Big day!

      #2. The completely no where to be found scientific detailed breakdown of the processes followed to fully Isolate this Global Pandemic causing VIRUS.

      It is not found ANYWHERE…….The CDC and WHO documents that claim isolation are quite clear that at BEST they are contaminated samples, therefore an isolated virus does not exist!

      Hence the FDA Designation of these “Vaccines” as “Experimental Agents”…………….

      Now you little Gook, cunt scumbag MIT POS Sold out traitor and collaborator, Crystal Lee, I dare you to rebut these Factual statements and Publicly shame me for daring to state the facts that you conveniently choose to ignore in your scientific study that somehow purports to show how the Antivaxxers are basically skewing data for their own narrative to justify not taking your Bill Gates Eugenics shot.

      We the people are not subject to any of you people and your science and your authorities. You know nothing of the bill of rights and freedom, obviously.

      But alas, thank you MIT for showing your colors, not that we did not know already. You all are added to the lists for later retribution, dumb weak scum.

      You really should have just left the people to their vices, for the blowback is going to be fkn epic!

  2. “Vaccine hesitancy is a big problem, according to the Biden administration. Less than half the public is fully vaccinated while about 56 percent have received at least one jab.”

    The percentage numbers change more than Creepy Joe’s adult diapers do on a daily basis.
    It’s not “vaccine hesitancy”, these are NOT vaccines. You can call those who reject the death shots “highly Informed”, “scientifically literate,” and “sophisticated”, but I say they are simply using common sense.

  3. Adults have been making decisions for themselves for thousands of years and lived with consequences good or bad. No means no and if push back means pushing someone on their ass to get that point driven home then so be it. Contrary to what the VP thinks, we know how to figure shit out. Too bad she doesnt.

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