Politics in Public Health: Growing Partisan Divides in COVID-19 Vaccine Attitudes and Uptake Post-2021 Presidential Inauguration

Politics in Public Health: Growing Partisan Divides in COVID-19 Vaccine Attitudes and Uptake Post-2021 Presidential Inauguration

ObjectivesTo investigate whether the 2021 U.S. presidential inauguration contributed to a widening of partisan divides in COVID-19 vaccine attitudes and uptake.MethodsWe leverage the presidential inauguration as a natural experiment and analyze data from the Household Pulse Survey and CDC vaccinatio...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hongbin Fan, Zhongliang Zhou, Guanping Liu, Chi Shen, Qi Zhang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2025-05-01
Series:International Journal of Public Health
Subjects:
political polarization
partisan divides
COVID-19 vaccine attitudes
COVID-19 vaccine uptake
presidential transition
Online Access:https://www.ssph-journal.org/articles/10.3389/ijph.2025.1608162/full
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Summary:ObjectivesTo investigate whether the 2021 U.S. presidential inauguration contributed to a widening of partisan divides in COVID-19 vaccine attitudes and uptake.MethodsWe leverage the presidential inauguration as a natural experiment and analyze data from the Household Pulse Survey and CDC vaccination records. Using a difference-in-differences framework with continuous treatment, we examine how the transition differentially affected state-level vaccine refusal rates and county-level vaccination rates, based on varying levels of partisanship as measured by the Trump–Biden vote gap.ResultsFollowing Biden’s inauguration, vaccine refusal declined more in pro-Biden states. Distrust in government and vaccines accounted for approximately 80% of the interstate variation. County-level analysis revealed that for every 1 percentage point increase in Trump’s vote share over Biden’s, counties experienced an additional 0.515%–2.674% decline in vaccination rates among adults aged 65+. These effects were more pronounced in politically loyal and high-turnout counties.ConclusionThe presidential transition appears to have widened partisan divides regrading COVID-19 vaccines. These findings highlight the need for depoliticized health messaging and bipartisan strategies to mitigate the influence of partisanship on public health.
ISSN:1661-8564

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