August 23, 2022
Electoral and religious correlates of COVID-19 vaccination rates in Dutch municipalities
Beyond a public health issue, COVID-19 vaccination was also an issue of political and social division. This study finds lower vaccination rates in Dutch municipalities with stronger support for the populist-right Forum for Democracy and larger Reformed Protestant or Muslim populations, highlighting how the effects of health campaigns can be undermined by demographic variables.
Abstract
Vaccination campaigns amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have been extensively politicized in a number of countries. Controlling for a number of demographic, social and economic factors, we find a negative statistical relationship between the aggregate vote share of the populist-right wing Forum for Democracy and the vaccination rate against COVID-19 across Dutch municipalities. We also find a negative relationship between the proportion of individuals with reformed Protestant and Muslim religious beliefs. These relationships can possibly be related to religious worldviews or mistrust towards authority. These results show that the politicization of health behaviours can have detrimental effects on public health campaigns.
To continue reading please visit: https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckac112
This open access article was published in the European Journal of Public Health on 23 August 2022.
Afonso, A., Votta, F. (2022). Electoral and religious correlates of COVID-19 vaccination rates in Dutch municipalities. European Journal of Public Health, 32(6), 985–987, https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckac112
Keywords: Democracy, Demography, Islam, Religious Philosophies, Vaccination, Health Behavior, Public Health Medicine, Pandemics, Covid-19, Covid-19 Vaccines, Economic Factors
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