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Vaccine confidence falls as belief in health misinformation grows

PHILADELPHIA – Americans have less confidence in vaccines to address a variety of illnesses than they did just a year or two ago, and more people accept…

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PHILADELPHIA – Americans have less confidence in vaccines to address a variety of illnesses than they did just a year or two ago, and more people accept misinformation about vaccines and Covid-19, according to the latest health survey from the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania.

Credit: Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania

PHILADELPHIA – Americans have less confidence in vaccines to address a variety of illnesses than they did just a year or two ago, and more people accept misinformation about vaccines and Covid-19, according to the latest health survey from the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania.

The survey conducted October 5-12, 2023, with a panel of over 1,500 U.S. adults, finds that the number of Americans who think vaccines approved for use in the United States are safe dropped to 71% from 77% in April 2021. The percentage of adults who don’t think vaccines approved in the U.S. are safe grew to 16% from 9% over that same two-and-a-half-year period.

Despite concerted efforts by news organizations, public health officials, scientists, and fact-checkers (including APPC’s project FactCheck.org) to counter viral misinformation about vaccination and Covid-19, the survey finds that some false or unproven claims about them are more widely accepted today than two to three years ago. Although the proportion of the American public that holds these beliefs is, in some cases, still relatively small, the survey finds growth in misinformation acceptance across many questions touching on vaccination.

“There are warning signs in these data that we ignore at our peril,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center and director of the survey. “Growing numbers now distrust health-protecting, life-saving vaccines.”

Highlights

  • Covid-19 vaccine: Less than two-thirds of Americans (63%) think is it safer to get the Covid-19 vaccine than the Covid-19 disease, a decline from 75% in April 2021.
  • Ivermectin: Over a quarter (26%) incorrectly think ivermectin is an effective treatment for Covid-19, up dramatically from 10% in September 2021.
  • Autism: A small but growing number (16%) believe that “increased vaccines are why so many kids have autism these days,” up from 10% in April 2021.
  • Return to normal: Asked when they expected to return to their normal, pre-Covid life, two-thirds (67%) say they already have. Three-quarters (75%) say they never or rarely wear a mask or face covering.

APPC’s Annenberg Science and Public Health Knowledge survey

The survey data come from the 13th wave of a nationally representative panel of 1,559 U.S. adults, first empaneled in April 2021, conducted for the Annenberg Public Policy Center by SSRS, an independent market research company. This wave of the Annenberg Science and Public Health Knowledge (ASAPH) survey was fielded October 5-12, 2023, and has a margin of sampling error (MOE) of ± 3.4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All figures are rounded to the nearest whole number and may not add to 100%. Combined subcategories may not add to totals in the topline and text due to rounding.

The policy center has been tracking the American public’s knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors regarding vaccination, Covid-19, flu, RSV, and other consequential health issues through this survey panel over the past two-and-a-half years. In addition to Jamieson, the APPC team on this survey includes research analyst Shawn Patterson Jr., who analyzed the data; Patrick E. Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Health and Risk Communication Institute, who developed the questions; and Ken Winneg, managing director of survey research, who supervised the fielding of the survey.

Download the topline and the methods report.

Growing acceptance of vaccine misinformation

Beliefs in vaccine misinformation are on the rise:

  • Vaccinations affecting childhood autism: There’s been a decline in the number of people who know it is false to say that “increased vaccinations are why so many kids have autism these days,” dropping to 65% from 71% in April 2021. The number of people who believe that this is true has grown to 16% from 10% over that period. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that vaccines do not cause autism.
  • Growing belief in false MMR-autism link: Asked if it is true or false that vaccines given to children for diseases like measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) cause autism, 12% incorrectly say this is true, up from 9% in June 2021, a statistically significant rise. Most people (70%) correctly say that this allegation is false. According to the CDC, vaccine experts say “the MMR vaccine is not responsible for increases in the number of children with autism.”
  • Flu shot and Covid-19: There was a small but statistically significant increase in the number of people who incorrectly think that getting a flu shot increases your risk of contracting Covid-19 – 9% say this is true, up from 6% in January 2023. As pointed out in a story by FactCheck.org, there is no evidence a flu shot increases the risk of Covid-19.
  • Growing belief that vaccines contain toxins: More than 1 in 10 people (12%) now incorrectly believe it is true that “vaccines in general are full of toxins and harmful ingredients like ‘antifreeze,’” a significant increase from 8% in April 2021. Although most people (73%) know this is false, that number has declined from 77% in June 2021. FactCheck.org notes that flu ingredients are safe in this story and writes about the ingredients in Covid-19 vaccines here. A look at the ingredients in vaccines is here.
  • Ivermectin to treat Covid-19: Over a quarter (26%) incorrectly say ivermectin is an effective treatment for Covid-19, up from 10% in September 2021. The percentage who know this is false also rose, to 37% from 27% in September 2021. Overall, the number of people who are unsure declined, to 38% from 63%. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not authorized or approved the use of ivermectin for treating or preventing Covid-19 in humans or animals, and says current data do not show it is effective against Covid-19.
  • Cancer and mRNA vaccines: 12% of those surveyed say it is true that mRNA vaccines against Covid-19 “cause cancer,” up from 9% in January 2023. The number who believe this is false remained steady at 58%. There is no evidence Covid-19 vaccines cause or “accelerate” cancer, according to FactCheck.org.

In addition, many do not know that the flu vaccine cannot give you the flu: Just half of those surveyed (51%) know that the seasonal flu shot distributed in the U.S. cannot give you flu, while nearly 3 in 10 people (29%) think that is false. This finding is statistically unchanged since January. The CDC says the flu vaccine cannot cause flu.

Less confidence in vaccine safety

  • Declining belief that vaccines are safe: Although most people (71%) agree that vaccines approved for use in the U.S. are safe, that is down significantly from 77% in April 2021. More people (16%) think it false to state that vaccines in the U.S. are safe than in January 2022 (11%). FactCheck.org examines what is known about vaccine safety.
  • Less confidence in Covid-19 vaccine: Less than two-thirds (63%) say it is safer to get the Covid-19 vaccine than to get the disease Covid-19, a significant drop from 77% in November 2021. And the number of people who say it is false to state that the vaccine is safer than the disease is up to 21%, more than doubling from 10% in April 2021.

Safety of specific vaccines

The public has widely varying opinions about the safety of individual vaccines – but several of those we asked about are perceived as less safe today than 14 months earlier in an August 2022 wave of this survey. The MMR, Covid-19, and pneumonia vaccines are all regarded as less safe than in the earlier survey.

Beliefs in the safety of individual vaccines range from 81% for the long-established vaccines for the seasonal flu and MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) to 50% for the vaccine approved in August by the FDA for pregnant people to protect their infants from respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. The significant declines are marked with an*:

  • MMR vaccine*: 81% say the MMR vaccine is safe (down significantly from 88% in August 2022), while 9% say it is unsafe and 10% are not sure.
  • Flu vaccine: 81% say the flu vaccine is safe (no significant change from August 2022), while 11% say it is unsafe and 8% are not sure.
  • Shingles vaccine: 78% say the shingles vaccine is safe (no significant change from August 2022), while 7% say it is unsafe and 15% are not sure.
  • Pneumonia vaccine*: 74% say the pneumonia vaccine is safe (down significantly from 80% in August 2022), while 8% say it is unsafe and 18% are not sure.
  • HPV vaccine: 65% say the vaccine for HPV, human papillomavirus, is safe (no significant change from August 2022), while 11% say it is unsafe and 24% are not sure.
  • Covid-19 vaccine*: 66% say the Covid-19 vaccine is safe (down significantly from 73% in August 2022), while 24% say it is unsafe and 10% are not sure.
  • RSV vaccine for older adults: 62% say the RSV vaccine for people 60 and older is safe, while 11% say it is unsafe, and 27% are not sure. This vaccine was first approved by the FDA in May 2023; this question was not asked last year.
  • RSV for pregnant people: Just half (50%) say the vaccine given to pregnant people to protect their infants from RSV is safe, while 13% say it is unsafe, and over a third (38%) are not sure. This vaccine was approved by the FDA in August 2023; this question was not asked last year.

Effectiveness of different vaccines

Public perceptions of the effectiveness of some vaccines have also declined over the past 14 months. The perceived effectiveness of the vaccines for MMR, flu, pneumonia, and HPV all had statistically significant drops since August 2022 and are marked with an *. Large percentages of people are unsure of whether the new RSV vaccines are effective. When asked how effective these vaccines are at preventing symptomatic disease, survey respondents say:

  • MMR vaccine*: 83% effective (down significantly from 87% in August 2022)
  • Flu vaccine*: 75% effective (down significantly from 81% in August 2022)
  • Shingles vaccine: 73% effective (no significant change)
  • Pneumonia vaccine*: 69% effective (down significantly from 74% in August 2022)
  • Covid-19 vaccine: 65% effective (no significant change)
  • HPV vaccine*: 61% effective (down significantly from 66% in August 2022)
  • RSV vaccine for older adults: 54% effective (37% not sure)
  • RSV vaccine for pregnant persons to protect their infants from RSV: 42% effective (47% not sure)

Lives returning to normal

Return to normal: Growing numbers of Americans say they have returned to their normal, pre-Covid lives. Asked when they expect to be able to return to their normal, pre-Covid life, 67% say they already have, significantly higher than in January (52%). However, this is not true for a small but persistent group who see life as forever changed. One in 5 Americans (20%) say they will never return to their normal, pre-Covid lives, more than in June 2023 (16%).

Mask-wearing: Asked how often you wear a mask or face covering indoors when with people who are not part of your household, 75% say never or rarely (statistically unchanged from June) – with 53% of those saying they never wear one. Another 21% say they sometimes, often, or always wear a mask or face covering, and 4% say they don’t go places where they might come in contact with people who are not in their household.

Download the topline with data for wave 13 of the survey.

The Annenberg Public Policy Center was established in 1993 to educate the public and policy makers about communication’s role in advancing public understanding of political, science, and health issues at the local, state, and federal levels. Read about our science and health surveys.

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International

Beloved mall retailer files Chapter 7 bankruptcy, will liquidate

The struggling chain has given up the fight and will close hundreds of stores around the world.

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2 hours ago

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March 10, 2024

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It has been a brutal period for several popular retailers. The fallout from the covid pandemic and a challenging economic environment have pushed numerous chains into bankruptcy with Tuesday Morning, Christmas Tree Shops, and Bed Bath & Beyond all moving from Chapter 11 to Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation.

In all three of those cases, the companies faced clear financial pressures that led to inventory problems and vendors demanding faster, or even upfront payment. That creates a sort of inevitability.

Related: Beloved retailer finds life after bankruptcy, new famous owner

When a retailer faces financial pressure it sets off a cycle where vendors become wary of selling them items. That leads to barren shelves and no ability for the chain to sell its way out of its financial problems. 

Once that happens bankruptcy generally becomes the only option. Sometimes that means a Chapter 11 filing which gives the company a chance to negotiate with its creditors. In some cases, deals can be worked out where vendors extend longer terms or even forgive some debts, and banks offer an extension of loan terms.

In other cases, new funding can be secured which assuages vendor concerns or the company might be taken over by its vendors. Sometimes, as was the case with David's Bridal, a new owner steps in, adds new money, and makes deals with creditors in order to give the company a new lease on life.

It's rare that a retailer moves directly into Chapter 7 bankruptcy and decides to liquidate without trying to find a new source of funding.

Mall traffic has varied depending upon the type of mall.

Image source: Getty Images

The Body Shop has bad news for customers  

The Body Shop has been in a very public fight for survival. Fears began when the company closed half of its locations in the United Kingdom. That was followed by a bankruptcy-style filing in Canada and an abrupt closure of its U.S. stores on March 4.

"The Canadian subsidiary of the global beauty and cosmetics brand announced it has started restructuring proceedings by filing a Notice of Intention (NOI) to Make a Proposal pursuant to the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (Canada). In the same release, the company said that, as of March 1, 2024, The Body Shop US Limited has ceased operations," Chain Store Age reported.

A message on the company's U.S. website shared a simple message that does not appear to be the entire story.

"We're currently undergoing planned maintenance, but don't worry we're due to be back online soon."

That same message is still on the company's website, but a new filing makes it clear that the site is not down for maintenance, it's down for good.

The Body Shop files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy

While the future appeared bleak for The Body Shop, fans of the brand held out hope that a savior would step in. That's not going to be the case. 

The Body Shop filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the United States.

"The US arm of the ethical cosmetics group has ceased trading at its 50 outlets. On Saturday (March 9), it filed for Chapter 7 insolvency, under which assets are sold off to clear debts, putting about 400 jobs at risk including those in a distribution center that still holds millions of dollars worth of stock," The Guardian reported.

After its closure in the United States, the survival of the brand remains very much in doubt. About half of the chain's stores in the United Kingdom remain open along with its Australian stores. 

The future of those stores remains very much in doubt and the chain has shared that it needs new funding in order for them to continue operating.

The Body Shop did not respond to a request for comment from TheStreet.   

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Government

Are Voters Recoiling Against Disorder?

Are Voters Recoiling Against Disorder?

Authored by Michael Barone via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The headlines coming out of the Super…

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16 hours ago

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March 9, 2024

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Are Voters Recoiling Against Disorder?

Authored by Michael Barone via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The headlines coming out of the Super Tuesday primaries have got it right. Barring cataclysmic changes, Donald Trump and Joe Biden will be the Republican and Democratic nominees for president in 2024.

(Left) President Joe Biden delivers remarks on canceling student debt at Culver City Julian Dixon Library in Culver City, Calif., on Feb. 21, 2024. (Right) Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump stands on stage during a campaign event at Big League Dreams Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nev., on Jan. 27, 2024. (Mario Tama/Getty Images; David Becker/Getty Images)

With Nikki Haley’s withdrawal, there will be no more significantly contested primaries or caucuses—the earliest both parties’ races have been over since something like the current primary-dominated system was put in place in 1972.

The primary results have spotlighted some of both nominees’ weaknesses.

Donald Trump lost high-income, high-educated constituencies, including the entire metro area—aka the Swamp. Many but by no means all Haley votes there were cast by Biden Democrats. Mr. Trump can’t afford to lose too many of the others in target states like Pennsylvania and Michigan.

Majorities and large minorities of voters in overwhelmingly Latino counties in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley and some in Houston voted against Joe Biden, and even more against Senate nominee Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas).

Returns from Hispanic precincts in New Hampshire and Massachusetts show the same thing. Mr. Biden can’t afford to lose too many Latino votes in target states like Arizona and Georgia.

When Mr. Trump rode down that escalator in 2015, commentators assumed he’d repel Latinos. Instead, Latino voters nationally, and especially the closest eyewitnesses of Biden’s open-border policy, have been trending heavily Republican.

High-income liberal Democrats may sport lawn signs proclaiming, “In this house, we believe ... no human is illegal.” The logical consequence of that belief is an open border. But modest-income folks in border counties know that flows of illegal immigrants result in disorder, disease, and crime.

There is plenty of impatience with increased disorder in election returns below the presidential level. Consider Los Angeles County, America’s largest county, with nearly 10 million people, more people than 40 of the 50 states. It voted 71 percent for Mr. Biden in 2020.

Current returns show county District Attorney George Gascon winning only 21 percent of the vote in the nonpartisan primary. He’ll apparently face Republican Nathan Hochman, a critic of his liberal policies, in November.

Gascon, elected after the May 2020 death of counterfeit-passing suspect George Floyd in Minneapolis, is one of many county prosecutors supported by billionaire George Soros. His policies include not charging juveniles as adults, not seeking higher penalties for gang membership or use of firearms, and bringing fewer misdemeanor cases.

The predictable result has been increased car thefts, burglaries, and personal robberies. Some 120 assistant district attorneys have left the office, and there’s a backlog of 10,000 unprosecuted cases.

More than a dozen other Soros-backed and similarly liberal prosecutors have faced strong opposition or have left office.

St. Louis prosecutor Kim Gardner resigned last May amid lawsuits seeking her removal, Milwaukee’s John Chisholm retired in January, and Baltimore’s Marilyn Mosby was defeated in July 2022 and convicted of perjury in September 2023. Last November, Loudoun County, Virginia, voters (62 percent Biden) ousted liberal Buta Biberaj, who declined to prosecute a transgender student for assault, and in June 2022 voters in San Francisco (85 percent Biden) recalled famed radical Chesa Boudin.

Similarly, this Tuesday, voters in San Francisco passed ballot measures strengthening police powers and requiring treatment of drug-addicted welfare recipients.

In retrospect, it appears the Floyd video, appearing after three months of COVID-19 confinement, sparked a frenzied, even crazed reaction, especially among the highly educated and articulate. One fatal incident was seen as proof that America’s “systemic racism” was worse than ever and that police forces should be defunded and perhaps abolished.

2020 was “the year America went crazy,” I wrote in January 2021, a year in which police funding was actually cut by Democrats in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Denver. A year in which young New York Times (NYT) staffers claimed they were endangered by the publication of Sen. Tom Cotton’s (R-Ark.) opinion article advocating calling in military forces if necessary to stop rioting, as had been done in Detroit in 1967 and Los Angeles in 1992. A craven NYT publisher even fired the editorial page editor for running the article.

Evidence of visible and tangible discontent with increasing violence and its consequences—barren and locked shelves in Manhattan chain drugstores, skyrocketing carjackings in Washington, D.C.—is as unmistakable in polls and election results as it is in daily life in large metropolitan areas. Maybe 2024 will turn out to be the year even liberal America stopped acting crazy.

Chaos and disorder work against incumbents, as they did in 1968 when Democrats saw their party’s popular vote fall from 61 percent to 43 percent.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

Tyler Durden Sat, 03/09/2024 - 23:20

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Government

Veterans Affairs Kept COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate In Place Without Evidence

Veterans Affairs Kept COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate In Place Without Evidence

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The…

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16 hours ago

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March 9, 2024

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Veterans Affairs Kept COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate In Place Without Evidence

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) reviewed no data when deciding in 2023 to keep its COVID-19 vaccine mandate in place.

Doses of a COVID-19 vaccine in Washington in a file image. (Jacquelyn Martin/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

VA Secretary Denis McDonough said on May 1, 2023, that the end of many other federal mandates “will not impact current policies at the Department of Veterans Affairs.”

He said the mandate was remaining for VA health care personnel “to ensure the safety of veterans and our colleagues.”

Mr. McDonough did not cite any studies or other data. A VA spokesperson declined to provide any data that was reviewed when deciding not to rescind the mandate. The Epoch Times submitted a Freedom of Information Act for “all documents outlining which data was relied upon when establishing the mandate when deciding to keep the mandate in place.”

The agency searched for such data and did not find any.

“The VA does not even attempt to justify its policies with science, because it can’t,” Leslie Manookian, president and founder of the Health Freedom Defense Fund, told The Epoch Times.

“The VA just trusts that the process and cost of challenging its unfounded policies is so onerous, most people are dissuaded from even trying,” she added.

The VA’s mandate remains in place to this day.

The VA’s website claims that vaccines “help protect you from getting severe illness” and “offer good protection against most COVID-19 variants,” pointing in part to observational data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that estimate the vaccines provide poor protection against symptomatic infection and transient shielding against hospitalization.

There have also been increasing concerns among outside scientists about confirmed side effects like heart inflammation—the VA hid a safety signal it detected for the inflammation—and possible side effects such as tinnitus, which shift the benefit-risk calculus.

President Joe Biden imposed a slate of COVID-19 vaccine mandates in 2021. The VA was the first federal agency to implement a mandate.

President Biden rescinded the mandates in May 2023, citing a drop in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. His administration maintains the choice to require vaccines was the right one and saved lives.

“Our administration’s vaccination requirements helped ensure the safety of workers in critical workforces including those in the healthcare and education sectors, protecting themselves and the populations they serve, and strengthening their ability to provide services without disruptions to operations,” the White House said.

Some experts said requiring vaccination meant many younger people were forced to get a vaccine despite the risks potentially outweighing the benefits, leaving fewer doses for older adults.

“By mandating the vaccines to younger people and those with natural immunity from having had COVID, older people in the U.S. and other countries did not have access to them, and many people might have died because of that,” Martin Kulldorff, a professor of medicine on leave from Harvard Medical School, told The Epoch Times previously.

The VA was one of just a handful of agencies to keep its mandate in place following the removal of many federal mandates.

“At this time, the vaccine requirement will remain in effect for VA health care personnel, including VA psychologists, pharmacists, social workers, nursing assistants, physical therapists, respiratory therapists, peer specialists, medical support assistants, engineers, housekeepers, and other clinical, administrative, and infrastructure support employees,” Mr. McDonough wrote to VA employees at the time.

“This also includes VA volunteers and contractors. Effectively, this means that any Veterans Health Administration (VHA) employee, volunteer, or contractor who works in VHA facilities, visits VHA facilities, or provides direct care to those we serve will still be subject to the vaccine requirement at this time,” he said. “We continue to monitor and discuss this requirement, and we will provide more information about the vaccination requirements for VA health care employees soon. As always, we will process requests for vaccination exceptions in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, and policies.”

The version of the shots cleared in the fall of 2022, and available through the fall of 2023, did not have any clinical trial data supporting them.

A new version was approved in the fall of 2023 because there were indications that the shots not only offered temporary protection but also that the level of protection was lower than what was observed during earlier stages of the pandemic.

Ms. Manookian, whose group has challenged several of the federal mandates, said that the mandate “illustrates the dangers of the administrative state and how these federal agencies have become a law unto themselves.”

Tyler Durden Sat, 03/09/2024 - 22:10

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