A new survey suggests faith leaders are key to combating vaccine hesitancy or outright anti-vaccine sentiment among religious Americans and QAnon believers, many of whom still voice concerns about getting inoculated against COVID-19.
The report from PRRI (Public Religion Research Institute) and Interfaith Youth Core, released on Thursday, divides American views on COVID-19 vaccines into three groups: vaccine accepters, vaccine refusers and those who are vaccine hesitant.
Herman Simmons, left, makes a vaccination appointment for Theopulis Polk, right, at a Chicago laundromat on Saturday, 6th March, 2021. Simmons is a community outreach worker enlisted by Saint Anthony Hospital. “I see myself as my brother’s keeper. I don’t try to force them. I’m persistent,’’ he said. In a race to boost vaccination rates as COVID-19 variants spread, US communities are working to overcome mistrust and improve access among people of colour. PICTURE: AP Photo/Teresa Crawford/File photo.
Vaccine hesitancy is a growing concern for public health officials hoping to inoculate enough Americans to reach “herd immunity” – an inflection point where the raw number of vaccinated individuals makes it difficult for the coronavirus to spread. Although the White House recently announced more than half of US adults have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, estimates for what it will take to reach herd immunity are much higher, ranging from 70 per cent to 90 per cent of the population.
Recent reporting from Bloomberg suggests that despite the unprecedented national vaccination effort, health officials in some locations may be running out of people willing to get vaccinated, with appointments going unfilled in more religious areas such as Lynchburg, Virginia, home to Liberty University, an evangelical Christian school.
Indeed, the PRRI/IFYC report warns that anti-vaccine sentiment is a factor within many religious groups, with white evangelicals the most likely to say they won’t get the shot (26 per cent). Other Protestants of colour are second (20 per cent), followed by Black Protestants (19 per cent), members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (17 per cent), Hispanic Protestants (15 per cent) and white mainline Protestants (13 per cent). At the bottom of the list are religiously unaffiliated Americans (12 per cent), Hispanic Catholics (10 per cent), non-Christians (10 per cent), white Catholics (eight per cent) and Jews (five per cent).
The breakdown of religious people who are vaccine hesitant – meaning they either want to wait and see how the COVID-19 vaccines work or will only get vaccinated if required – is slightly different from those who anti-vaccine: Hispanic Protestants (42 per cent) are at the top, followed by other Protestants of color (35 per cent), Hispanic Catholics (34 per cent), members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (33 per cent), Black Protestants (32 per cent), religiously unaffiliated people (28 per cent) and white evangelicals (28 per cent).
Most groups still report a majority of vaccine accepters, with the exception of Hispanic Protestants (43 per cent), white evangelicals (45 per cent), other Protestants of color (45 per cent), Black Protestants (49 per cent) and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (50 per cent).
But the rates of vaccine refusers and hesitant people in many religious groups remain higher than among the general public, where only 14 per cent are vaccine refusers and 28 per cent are vaccine hesitant.
Researchers at PRRI and IFYC say there is hope for public health officials angling to push people toward vaccine acceptance – namely, through faith-based campaigns and messages.
There is already faith-based momentum among Black Protestants, where nearly six in 10 (57 per cent) who attend services at least a few times per year are vaccine accepters, compared with 41 per cent among those who do not attend services.
However, the reverse is true for white evangelicals, where those who attend religious services frequently are less likely to be vaccine accepters (43 per cent) than those who attend less frequently (48 per cent).
Here, researchers see an opportunity: When asked if one or more faith-based approaches would make them more likely to get a COVID-19 vaccine, 38 per cent of white evangelicals who are vaccine hesitant say yes, as well as four per cent of vaccine refusers in that group. The numbers jump even higher – to 47 per cent and 7 per cent, respectively – among white evangelicals who attend religious services regularly.
Significant numbers of vaccine-hesitant Black Protestants (36 per cent), Hispanic Catholics (33 per cent) and white mainline Protestants (18 per cent) also say they’d be more likely to get a COVID-19 vaccine if they were targeted by a faith-based approach.
Surveyors asked about six potential faith-based approaches in their survey, such as a religious leader encouraging them to get the vaccine, holding a forum to discuss vaccine safety at a religious location or getting the vaccine at a nearby religious congregation.
During a Thursday online event to launch the survey, PRRI research director Natalie Jackson noted variations among religious groups as to which faith-based approach appears most likely to combat vaccine hesitancy.
“For white evangelicals, the three most influential approaches were a religious leader getting the vaccine, a religious leader encouraging people to get the vaccine and a forum held by the religious congregation about the safety of the vaccines…They would move (more than) 20 per cent of white evangelicals in each case,” she said in response to a question from Religion News Service.
“Among black Protestants, by far the most influential approach would be the forum on the safety of the vaccines.”
Robert P Jones, head of PRRI, added that while some strategies could work better than others, the combined effect of multiple efforts could make an even larger difference.
“Even among a homogeneous group like white evangelical Protestants, each of these things picks up slightly different slices,” he said. “The cumulative effect is bigger than just any of these one of six.”
All the faith-based approaches are based on existing real-world efforts to get people vaccinated, many of which have been forged by partnerships between religious organisations and government officials. Prominent clergy – from bishops to imams to rabbis to activists – have been vaccinated in public across the country, such as when a group of faith leaders were vaccinated at the Washington National Cathedral in March during an event featuring National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins and infectious-disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Faith leaders have also penned editorials voicing support for vaccines, offered up their sanctuaries as vaccine locations or participated in vaccine trials. And government officials have sought out religious groups to help overcome issues with vaccine access: Health experts in Washington, DC, have partnered with Black churches to host mass vaccination days, and President Joe Biden visited a seminary in April that is working with a non-profit organisation focused on health equity.
At the launch event, IFYC founder and President Eboo Patel called for an expansion of faith-based vaccination sites and for additional data tracking religious opinions on vaccines. He also promoted the idea of faith-based community health ambassadors, which his group is working to recruit across the country.
Yet challenges remain. The White House has flagged challenges with appealing to white conservatives – including evangelicals. In April, White House press secretary Jen Psaki admitted to reporters that members of the Biden administration “won’t always be the best messengers”.
The issue is compounded with the preponderance of baseless conspiracy theories, such as those spread by the group QAnon. According to PRRI/IFYC, a significant portion of vaccine refusers – 38 per cent – say they are “generally agreeable” to QAnon conspiracy theories such as the erroneous claim that the government is controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles. In addition, 17 per cent of vaccine hesitant respondents say they generally agree with QAnon theories.
And there’s a religious overlap: A solid 20 per cent of white evangelical Protestants say they generally agree with QAnon conspiracy theories, as do 18 per cent of Hispanic Protestants, 17 per cent of Mormons, 16 per cent of Black protestants and 16 per cent of Hispanic Catholics.
Yet those who agree with QAnon conspiracy theories are also those most likely to overcome vaccine hesitancy using faith-based approaches: Among those who generally agree with QAnon conspiracy theories and who are vaccine hesitant, more than one-third (36 per cent) say one or more of the faith-based approaches would make them at least somewhat more likely to get a vaccine.
After that, it’s vaccine refusers who remain the toughest sell: The survey reported that effectiveness of faith-based approaches does not vary significantly by QAnon conspiracy beliefs.
