Reports of COVID-19 Vaccine Adverse Events in Predominantly Republican vs Democratic States.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Antivaccine sentiment is increasingly associated with conservative political positions. Republican-inclined states exhibit lower COVID-19 vaccination rates, but the association between political inclination and reported vaccine adverse events (AEs) is unexplored.

Objective

To assess whether there is an association between state political inclination and the reporting rates of COVID-19 vaccine AEs.

Design, setting, and participants

This cross-sectional study used the AE reports after COVID-19 vaccination from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) database from 2020 to 2022, with reports after influenza vaccines from 2019 to 2022 used as a reference. These reports were examined against state-level percentage of Republican votes in the 2020 US pre

SUBMITTER: Asch DA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10980960 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature