Populist politics and vaccine hesitancy in Western Europe: an analysis of national-level data
Populist politics and vaccine hesitancy in Western Europe: an analysis of national-level data
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DOI：
10.1093/eurpub/ckz004
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发表时间：
2019-06-01
影响因子：
4.4
通讯作者：
Kennedy, Jonathan
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Kennedy, Jonathan
背景：父母不愿给孩子接种疫苗，这破坏了西欧疫苗接种计划的有效性。有轶事证据表明，政治民粹主义的兴起和疫苗犹豫之间存在联系。方法：本文分析了国家层面的数据，以研究西欧政治民粹主义和疫苗犹豫之间的联系。政治民粹主义是指在2014年欧洲议会选举中投票支持民粹主义政党的人数百分比。根据疫苗信心项目（2015年）的数据，疫苗犹豫是一个国家中认为疫苗不重要、安全和有效的人的百分比。结果如下：在一个国家，投票给民粹主义政党的人的百分比与认为疫苗不重要（R = 0.7923，P = 0.007）和有效（R = 0.7222，P = 0.0035）的人的百分比之间存在高度显著的正相关。认为疫苗不安全的人的百分比在5%的水平上（R = 0.5027，P = 0.0669）。结论：疫苗犹豫和政治民粹主义是由类似的动力驱动的：对精英和专家的深刻不信任。公共卫生学者和行动者有必要努力与不愿为子女接种疫苗的父母建立信任，但这一战略也有局限性。更普遍的公众对精英和专家的不信任告知疫苗犹豫将难以解决，除非其根本原因-大部分西欧人口的政治权利被剥夺和经济边缘化-也得到解决。
Background: Parents' reluctance to vaccinate their children undermines the effectiveness of vaccination programmes in Western Europe. There is anecdotal evidence suggesting a connection between the rise of political populism and vaccine hesitancy. Methods: This paper analyses national-level data to examine the link between political populism and vaccine hesitancy in Western Europe. Political populism is operationalised as the percentage of people in a country who voted for populist parties in the 2014 European Parliament elections. Vaccine hesitancy is operationalised as the percentage of people in a country who believe that vaccines are not important, safe and effective according to data from the Vaccine Confidence Project (2015). Results: There is a highly significant positive association between the percentage of people in a country who voted for populist parties and who believe that vaccines are not important (R = 0.7923, P = 0.007) and effective (R = 0.7222, P = 0.0035). The percentage of people who think vaccines are unsafe just misses being significant at the 5% level (R = 0.5027, P = 0.0669). Conclusions: Vaccine hesitancy and political populism are driven by similar dynamics: a profound distrust in elites and experts. It is necessary for public health scholars and actors to work to build trust with parents that are reluctant to vaccinate their children, but there are limits to this strategy. The more general popular distrust of elites and experts which informs vaccine hesitancy will be difficult to resolve unless its underlying causes-the political disenfranchisement and economic marginalisation of large parts of the Western European population-are also addressed.