Partisanship and Covid-19 vaccination in the UK

Political Party Affiliation and COVID-19 Vaccination Status in Japan, 2022

INTRODUCTION

An association has been reported between political affiliations and vaccination worldwide. In Japan, a significant proportion of the population are non-partisans, and major political parties advocate COVID-19 vaccination. The association between supporting political parties and COVID-19 vaccination coverage in Japan remains unclear. This study aims to investigate the relationship between political party affiliation and COVID-19 vaccination status in Japan.  Methods: This study utilized data from large-scale nationwide internet surveys conducted in Japan in 2022, with a sample size of 21,162 participants. The surveys collected information on participants' COVID-19 vaccination status and political party affiliation. The political parties included in the analysis were the Liberal Democratic Party, the Constitutional Democratic Party, the Komeito, the Japanese Communist Party, the Japan Innovation Party (Nippon Ishin no Kai), and the Reiwa Shinsengumi, as well as non-partisans. Logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the relationship between political partisanship and COVID-19 vaccine status. The analysis controlled for potential confounding variables such as age, gender, socioeconomic status, and geographic location.

RESULTS

The odds of being unvaccinated were lower for supporters of large political groups (e.g. Liberal Democratic Party {OR 0.6; 95% CI, 0.5-0.7}), while higher for small political groups (e.g. Reiwa Shinsengumi {OR 2.6; 95% CI, 1.9-3.6}), in comparison with non-partisan.

CONCLUSION

Political affiliation may be associated with vaccination disparities in Japan. Supporters of minor parties were more likely to be unvaccinated than those of the larger parties. However, this study has several limitations, including self-reporting bias and selection bias due to the Internet survey methodology.

Political context of the European vaccine debate on Twitter

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, fears grew that making vaccination a political (instead of public health) issue may impact the efficacy of this life-saving intervention, spurring the spread of vaccine-hesitant content. In this study, we examine whether there is a relationship between the political interest of social media users and their exposure to vaccine-hesitant content on Twitter. We focus on 17 European countries using a multilingual, longitudinal dataset of tweets spanning the period before COVID, up to the vaccine roll-out. We find that, in most countries, users' endorsement of vaccine-hesitant content is the highest in the early months of the pandemic, around the time of greatest scientific uncertainty. Further, users who follow politicians from right-wing parties, and those associated with authoritarian or anti-EU stances are more likely to endorse vaccine-hesitant content, whereas those following left-wing politicians, more pro-EU or liberal parties, are less likely. Somewhat surprisingly, politicians did not play an outsized role in the vaccine debates of their countries, receiving a similar number of retweets as other similarly popular users. This systematic, multi-country, longitudinal investigation of the connection of politics with vaccine hesitancy has important implications for public health policy and communication.

Far-right political ideology and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy: Multilevel analysis of 21 European countries

BACKGROUND

Far-right political parties across the EU have downplayed the risk of COVID-19 and have expressed skepticism toward the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine. This may affect the risk perception of people who support far-right parties and may be associated with an elevated risk of vaccine hesitancy. We aimed to explore if voting far-right is associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and if the association varies by individual and country-level factors.

METHODS

We used cross-sectional data from 28,057 individuals nested in 21 countries who participated in the tenth round of the European Social Survey (ESS). COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy was assessed by asking respondents whether they will get vaccinated against COVID-19. Voting behavior was measured by asking respondents which party they voted for in the last election. To test the association between far-right voting and COVID-19 hesitancy, we applied a series of multilevel regression models. We additionally ran models including interaction terms to test if the association differs by sociodemographic characteristics (e.g., institutional trust) or contextual factors (e.g., income inequality).

RESULTS

We found that far-right voters were 2.7 times more likely to be COVID-19 vaccine hesitant compared to center voters (PR: 2.69, 95% CI: 1.46-4.94). The association persisted even after controlling for institutional trust and social participation (adjusted PR: 2.15, 95% CI: 1.35-3.42). None of the tested interaction terms were significant suggesting that the association between political ideology and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy does not differ by sociodemographic characteristics or contextual factors.

CONCLUSION

Voting for far-right parties is associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. The association is similar among European countries, regardless of how stringent the public health measures were and magnitude of income inequality in each country. Our findings call for a more in-depth investigation of why, how and under which conditions political ideology affects vaccination behavior.

Socio-demographic characteristics associated with COVID-19 vaccination uptake in Switzerland: longitudinal analysis of the CoMix study

BACKGROUND

Vaccination is an effective strategy to reduce morbidity and mortality from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, the uptake of COVID-19 vaccination has varied across and within countries. Switzerland has had lower levels of COVID-19 vaccination uptake in the general population than many other high-income countries. Understanding the socio-demographic factors associated with vaccination uptake can help to inform future vaccination strategies to increase uptake.

METHODS

We conducted a longitudinal online survey in the Swiss population, consisting of six survey waves from June to September 2021. Participants provided information on socio-demographic characteristics, history of testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), social contacts, willingness to be vaccinated, and vaccination status. We used a multivariable Poisson regression model to estimate the adjusted rate ratio (aRR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of COVID-19 vaccine uptake.

RESULTS

We recorded 6,758 observations from 1,884 adults. For the regression analysis, we included 3,513 observations from 1,883 participants. By September 2021, 600 (75%) of 806 study participants had received at least one vaccine dose. Participants who were older, male, and students, had a higher educational level, household income, and number of social contacts, and lived in a household with a medically vulnerable person were more likely to have received at least one vaccine dose. Female participants, those who lived in rural areas and smaller households, and people who perceived COVID-19 measures as being too strict were less likely to be vaccinated. We found no significant association between previous SARS-CoV-2 infections and vaccination uptake.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results suggest that socio-demographic factors as well as individual behaviours and attitudes played an important role in COVID-19 vaccination uptake in Switzerland. Therefore, appropriate communication with the public is needed to ensure that public health interventions are accepted and implemented by the population. Tailored COVID-19 vaccination strategies in Switzerland that aim to improve uptake should target specific subgroups such as women, people from rural areas or people with lower socio-demographic status.