Elsevier

Vaccine

Volume 39, Issue 45, 29 October 2021, Pages 6614-6621
Vaccine

Christian nationalism and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and uptake

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.09.074Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Roughly 67% of the sample reported having received a COVID-19 vaccine.

  • Christian nationalism is negatively associated with COVID-19 vaccine confidence.

  • Christian nationalism is negatively related to the odds of COVID-19 vaccine uptake.

Abstract

Understanding COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and uptake is vital for informing public health interventions. Prior U.S. research has found that religious conservatism is positively associated with anti-vaccine attitudes. One of the strongest predictors of anti-vaccine attitudes in the U.S. is Christian nationalism—a U.S. cultural ideology that wants civic life to be permeated by their particular form of nationalist Christianity. However, there are no studies examining the relationship between Christian nationalism and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and uptake. Using a new nationally representative sample of U.S. adults, we find that Christian nationalism is one of the strongest predictors of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and is negatively associated with having received or planning to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Since Christian nationalists make up approximately 20 percent of the population, these findings could have important implications for achieving herd immunity.

Keywords

Christian nationalism
COVID-19
Vaccine hesitancy
Religion

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