How much right-wing opposition to vaccinations is Fox News’ fault?

“He watched some of Tucker Carlson’s videos on YouTube, some of which involved some misinformation about vaccines,” Lane said. “I believe that worked.”

New research suggests that Patrick Lane may not be the only consumer who has turned down vaccinations because of comments made by a Fox News host. So he might not be the only one who died from covid-19, or he might still be alive.

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we’ve already know for a while there is one partisan Differences in vaccination doses. Much attention has been paid to racial disparities in vaccination rates—often because pointing out that black Americans have lower vaccination rates is used as a form of nihilism to justify low rates among Republicans.But research has Always show White Republicans are far less likely to report being vaccinated than black Americans, and far less likely than white Democrats.

Research published this month established Correlation between partisanship and excess mortality during a pandemic. In places with lower vaccination rates — which have been linked to supporting President Donald Trump in the 2020 election — Republicans have had a much higher death rate than they were before the pandemic, a gap that has come after a vaccine became widely available within a few months.

but why? What makes Republicans less likely to get vaccinated?

To some extent, we can point to the interplay of partisanship itself. As president, Trump has tried to downplay the dangers of the virus and set his sights on re-election, exert effort Contain the virus because the power of an overbearing government is at work. That certainly helps influence Republican behavior on vaccinations, mask wearing and social distancing.

However, research published last week identified a possible role for another prominent voice on the political right: Fox News.

“Our findings suggest that Fox News is reducing COVID-19 vaccination rates in the United States, with no evidence of any impact from other major networks,” conclude the study by researchers at ETH Zurich. “[T]This is an association between areas with higher Fox News ratings and lower vaccination rates,” noting that “the media’s emphasis on minority views opposed to scientific consensus is associated with vaccination hesitancy. “

Tracking vaccinations from March to June 2021 shows significantly lower vaccination rates among Fox News viewers under the age of 65, especially in May – the following month Vaccinations are open for all adults.

Recognizing Fox News Audiences is a republicanthe researchers worked hard to disentangle partisanship from their analyses — and succeeded.

“We can rule out that the effect was due to partisan differences, local health policy, or local COVID-19 infection or mortality,” the study’s authors wrote. “The other two major television networks, CNN and MSNBC, did not have any influences.”

So what happened to Fox News during the study? Well, on the one hand, Fox News discusses vaccines less often than its main rival. During the first two weeks of April and May, the word “vaccine” was mentioned twice as often on CNN as on Fox News, and much more frequently on MSNBC.

During the study period, one Fox News show was among the top 10 shows on cable news that mentioned the word “vaccine” most often: Tucker Carlson’s.

In May 2021, Carlson’s was cable news’s second-most-watched prime-time show — but Most concerned in the 25- to 54-year-old population.

What did Carlson say about vaccines in May 2021? look by youself. but this includes his altitude of Inaccurate Figures on alleged deaths from coronavirus vaccines and peddling The idea that natural immunity is as effective as vaccination—of course, ignores the risks that come with achieving natural immunity. Carlsen has hosted Covid-19 vaccine opponent Alex Berenson more than once. (Berenson’s shaky grasp of the data has won him Aptly titled “The Wrongest People in a Pandemic.”)

So, at a time when Fox News viewers under 65 are significantly less likely to get a coronavirus vaccine, the most popular under-65 shows on Fox News are those who constantly mispronounce or downplay the vaccine’s efficacy.

Department of Health and Human Services last week report Vaccination may have saved the lives of 330,000 Medicare recipients by 2021. Most of them were 65 and older, the group most likely to be vaccinated.

When he died, Patrick Lane is 45.