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Republicans and Blacks most hesitant to get COVID vaccine, PSU spatial analysis finds

Vaccine hesitancy remains a public health challenge that cuts across the country as the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, but Republican voters and Black people are among the most hesitant to get the shot, according to a new Portland State University study.

Arun Pallathadka, a Ph.D. student in PSU’s Earth, Environment and Society’s program, and Heejun Chang, professor of geography, conducted a spatial analysis of vaccination data at the county level across the U.S. to identify the social, ecological and technological factors impacting vaccine rates.

Among the findings:

The researchers said that the findings indicate that a regional approach may better serve vaccination efforts than a universal approach.

“Public health officials and policymakers need to recognize that space matters to COVID-19 vaccination efforts,” Pallathadka said. “This study demonstrates how spatially explicitly health policies are required to boost vaccination rates, especially targeted towards significant local factors we have emphasized in the study.”

The findings were published in Environmental Research: Health. Daikwon Han, an associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Texas A&M, is also a co-author of the study.