Religion shapes vaccine views – but how exactly? Survey looks at beliefs about God and the Bible

“All else being equal, those who said that the Bible is the literal word of God, for instance, scored 18% higher on our measure of general vaccine skepticism” - The Conversation

Discussion

What is really sad is that too many Christians can't interpret between truth and propoganda. As Christians we should be the declarer or truth and not the promoter of conspiracy theories. Social media has so much influence in this area, because they feed content based off of a viewers habits and the algorithm links things together. In addition, many people find it hard to distinguish between news and opinion, as most news channels don't clearly articulate which is which and since the opinion brings in so much money, that part is highlighted the most.

It is fine being a skeptic of vaccines, but too many Christians are skeptics because of conspiracy theories and not because of scientific factual reasons.

I’d argue that “scientific factual reasons” are not the only “non-conspiracy” reasons to be skeptical.

If data about either efficacy and or adverse effects is not being made available at the same time the public is being urged (or required) to take a vaccine, and being told “it’s completely safe,” then even without having the scientific data at my disposal (because it’s not being provided), I can quite reasonably be skeptical about both the claims being made about the vaccine as well as the necessity for the public to just take it, without needing any conspiracy theories to do so.

Dave Barnhart

....is that most peoples' experience with vaccines is the little cartoonish pamphlets handed out at doctors' offices, few if any of which actually have clear indications of the overall effectiveness of the vaccine, and it's also rare for the pamphlets to discuss how herd immunity works. Hence people are not aware of the details that would make them less susceptible to the snake oil salesmen out there.

The COVID vaccine is a great example. The authorities led with mandates instead of data, which was in many ways crazy, as infection rates plunged as soon as they started vaccinating medical care providers and nursing home residents.

(of course, that bit probably chagrined a lot of hospitals who had been pretending they were not a major conduit for the infection, but I digress...)

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.

I have to chuckle reading this. It looks like Bible believes are more inclined to agree with Robert Kennedy Jr. (a Democrat presidential candidate) and never Trumpers are agreeing with Trump when it comes to vaccines.