Flu Shots are Now a Partisan Issue

We’re living in such a bizarre time. Vaccines are fucking amazing. They do things like KEEP YOU FROM DYING. I’ve gotten 3 rounds of Pfizer now and got my flu shot back in September. Here’s the thing, viruses don’t care about your politics. Get your damn shots so you don’t get sick, and more importantly, you don’t spread your germs to others. Also, my 5G reception now is amazing.

Uptake of the Covid-19 vaccine has, unfortunately, become partisan like so much else in our society. Almost every Democratic adult (90% to 95%) has gotten a shot, while a little less than two-thirds of Republican adults have. That partisanship appears to have transferred to at least one other important vaccination. An examination of flu shot data suggests that which party people belong to is highly correlated with whether they have or will get a flu shot this season — something that was not predictive of flu shot uptake the last few years. Take a look at two recent polls that have asked about whether or not people have gotten the flu shot: Axios/Ipsos and Kaiser Family Foundation. By assessing two polls instead of one, we know what we’re seeing is a real phenomenon and not statistical noise. According to the Ipsos data, 68% of Democrats said they have gotten a flu shot or are very likely to get one. Just 44% of Republicans said the same. This 24-point gap is very similar to the 30-point gap for Covid-19 vaccines.