According to recent Carnegie Mellon paper... Ph.D's least likely (Education Subgroup) to be vaxx'd

[WarGamer]

That's a shocker.

When analyzing vaccine hesitancy by education level, one sees a U-Shaped Curve with High School and Ph.D's highest while Master's Degree recipients have the lowest vaccine hesitancy.

But Ph.D's are even MORE hesitant than High School only grads.

Who wouldathunkit?

https://www.upmc.com/media/news/072621-king-mejia-vaccine-hesitancy

[lagomorph777]

1. That's seriously messed up.

[abqtommy]

2. People who live in ivory towers often wind up pushing up flowers.

[mainer]

3. Depends on what they got their doctorate in

If they're in engineering, I'm not surprised they're conservative.

[WarGamer]

5. I think the Ph.D engineers are a tiny fraction.

[LanternWaste]

14. I think Ph.D. engineers are a sizable fraction.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Could be due to academic arrogance.

Many Ph.D’s mistakenly think they’re the smartest ones in the room.

[joetheman]

57. You got it! They need to research from where they graduated or received their Ph.D.

Methinks there will be a lot of evangelical Ph.D.s

[Phoenix61]

6. B.S. bull shit, M.S. more shit, Phd piled higher and deeper. nt

[Cuthbert Allgood]

12. All of us here with graduate degrees appreciate your humor.

[WarGamer]

13. I have two MS and I laughed...

Can't take ourselves too seriously...

I joke all the time about the Doctor or Lawyers who can't find their oil dipstick or change the time on their new device.

[Iris]

55. self-deleted

moved down thread

[jmbar2]

26. Very funny...

Guilty as charged. But fully vaccinated. Does that make me an outlier?

[Phoenix61]

28. I can't personally attest to the Phd one

But the first two held true in my college days.

[jmbar2]

32. The last one is entirely accurate, IMHO.

And I are one...

[Darwin2019]

7. I have a PhD and I am vaccinated

My degree is in Classical studies. Almost everyone I know has either a PhD or masters and they are all vaccinated.

[WarGamer]

8. Probably says more about your group of friends/acquaintances than Ed level in general.

I also work with a lot of Ph.D's... in Biology and Med fields... all vaxx'd

[FakeNoose]

21. Your friends sound nice

Stay groovy, Darwin!

[Johonny]

25. I work in a company with a high density of PhDs

They're all vaccinated too.

[Bonn1997]

9. Not true (according to LaCapria)

I haven’t actually read all of this carefully yet, but it smells like a misleading headline
[link:https://www.truthorfiction.com/no-a-study-didnt-find-that-the-most-highly-educated-americans-are-also-the-most-vaccine-hesitant/|
OP might want to look into this more and decide whether a correction is needed, or post the LaCapria link)

[WarGamer]

11. I read it and your truth/fiction story is splitting hairs.

The DATA says that Ph.D's have the greatest vaccine hesitancy.

[Bonn1997]

15. Deleted: I'm not sure if what I wrote was right since I haven't read the study

Last edited Fri Aug 13, 2021, 04:42 PM - Edit history (1)

People should read the study and the LaCarpia article

[FreepFryer]

16. Thanks for the debunking, this story smelled fishy from the jump (Nt)

[WarGamer]

24. the headline is accurate. 100%

[Phoenix61]

41. An accurate headline would be "PhD's showed the smallest change

in vaccine hesitancy between January and May.”
“Researchers specifically separated out unvaccinated individuals who indicated they “probably or definitely would not choose to get vaccinated,” because “if and how vaccine hesitancy has changed during the first five months of the US COVID-19 vaccine rollout, overall and among subgroups, [remained] largely unstudied.” Authors expanded “Results” on page six, explaining their findings from January through May 2021:”

[WarGamer]

42. Just look at the graph posted below. It's easier than me going into detail about data.

A higher % of Ph.D's are vaccine hesitant than ANY other education level subgroup.

AKA Ph.D's most vaccine hesitant.


One sentence and it's that easy. Fact.

[Phoenix61]

46. That's not correct. nt

[WarGamer]

47. Hmmm?

[Hugh_Lebowski]

17. SO many journalists are terrible at understanding study results and statistics

I'm often absolutely amazed they are allowed to write articles.

The internet has so severely lowered the accuracy level of 'news' being consumed, it's really depressing to me.

[WarGamer]

23. And you'd be wrong.

Just read the 28 page paper.

I did.

Stop trying to steer facts into personal opinion.

Bottom line...

[Bonn1997]

33. I have no idea what's right

I shared a link questioning the story and specifically indicated my uncertainty in my post. What part is wrong?

[WarGamer]

34. Just look at the graph posted below. It's easier than me going into detail about data.

[Bonn1997]

38. You can't just look at a graph to fully understand a study

[WarGamer]

39. lol... so be it!! Initiate a study of the study!! Grant money!!

It's just like when a poll shows results one doesn't like and then crawl up in the crosstabs and find "flaws".

[Phoenix61]

43. For a graph to be meaningful you have to

know what the sample is. This wasn’t a random sample. It was specifically measuring how vaccine hesitancy changed over the time period of Jan-May. If 100 PhDs were vaccinated and 2 weren’t the sample would only include the 2 who weren’t vaccinated.

[WarGamer]

45. where's the :rolleyes: emoticon?

[redstatebluegirl]

10. My husband was first in line to get his, everyone we know in his department are vaccinated.

The problem at our university are the staff who are by and large Trumpers. Maybe history profs, but not STEM profs. Now I will wait to hear all of the anti-intellectual crowd on here take their hits. How long before the BS, MS and PHD nonsense posts start.

I am more than sick of the people who hate professors, I expect them with the Trumpers, but there are a lot of them on here as well.

[mdelaguna]

44. Same here - all the Ph.D.s I know we're vaxxed ASAP

Once eligible as are all their family members aged 12+

[Mosby]

19. where does it say that?

It said;

Those from counties with higher Trump support in the 2020 presidential election showed higher hesitancy, and the difference in hesitancy between areas with high and low Trump support grew over the period studied. “This finding really highlights the politicization of public health recommendations,” said King.

“What's concerning is there is a subset of the population that's got strong levels of hesitancy, as in refusal to take the vaccine, not potential concern about it, and the size of that group isn’t changing,” said Mejia.

[WarGamer]

27. Why did you stop reading at that paragraph, lol?

"Hesitancy held constant in the most educated group (those with a Ph.D.); by May Ph.D.’s were the most hesitant group."

[Mosby]

30. the data is from Facebook, LOL.

https://dataforgood.fb.com/

[WarGamer]

31. No it's from the Carnegie Mellon paper...

If I post the link to the 28 page study with polling, will you read it?

Otherwise just look at the graph that was posted below. It's a visual, easier to understand.

[Mosby]

36. i read it

The study employs a [i]novel sampling method with a soft ask and low response rate[/i], the effect of which has not yet been fully studied. Survey weights adjust for non-response and coverage bias (i.e., matching the sample to gender, age, and geographic profile of the US). However, a comparison with the American Community Survey20 shows our sample is more educated with higher vaccine uptake than general population, indicating that vaccine hesitancy is underestimated in this sample. Importantly, these characteristics have been consistent over time. CTIS results follow similar patterns observed by others,8 and have been helpful for tracking trends, understanding associations and informing policies21,22. Demographic questions were asked at the end of the survey and had high unit non-response (e.g., 12% for age), which was treated as a category in analysis. Additionally, we assume the survey was completed in good faith. However, a review of fill-in responses for self-described gender suggest a small percentage of participants used that category to make political statements (e.g., trans-phobic comments). A sensitivity analysis eliminating respondents with self-described gender produced very similar results, though the increase in hesitancy for those age ≥75 years was attenuated (data not shown). A strength of our novel sampling method is that it yielded a large sample with diverse characteristics that enabled detailed subgroup analyses that identified new findings (e.g., non-binary and male genders had similar hesitancy prevalence). Additionally, while a previous study evaluated changes in hesitancy by age, sex, education, or income level, October 2020 through March 20218, estimated change by these categories had large overlapping 95% CI, likely in part reflecting the much smaller sample size. Further, the racial and education categories (White, Hispanic, Black, Other; and Yes/No College Degree) collapsed groups in which we have identified meaningful differences.

In the US, the COVID-19 vaccination campaign has moved from an initial phase of scarcity, where equity concerns guided access, to a phase of abundance, where messaging and attention to barriers to access is essential to equity, and where increasing vaccine acceptance is critical to achieving herd immunity. Better understanding of reasons for hesitancy among subgroups, combined with up-to-date information on hesitancy by demographics, political environment, and individual health, behaviors and beliefs can help policy makers achieve these goals. Particularly hesitant subgroups include Native American and Multi-racial groups of all ages, and White and Blacks adults

[WarGamer]

37. And NONE of that changes the headline of the story.

Not at all.

[mdelaguna]

48. I'm with you this is bogus nt

[Crunchy Frog]

53. Thank you for digging into the underlying methodology.

Too many people don't understand that a single, lurid headline from a scientific paper does not necessarily give you a full picture of the issue.

[Mr.Bill]

20. If someone with an IQ of 93

goes to Harvard and gets a Ph.D they will then be someone with a Harvard Ph.D and an IQ of 93.

[Jim__]

22. Here's a graph of the responses across time.

From the original paper

What is perhaps not surprising is that the hesitancy of the PhDs does not change across time.

?width=800&height=600&carousel=1

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy by race/ethnicity (ages 18-34 yearsa), education level, US region and county Trump vote share in 2020 presidential election among US adults by month (January-May, 2021)

Between January and May the gap in percent hesitant between race/ethnicity groups among adults 18-34 years (panel A) and education levels among all ages (panel B) decreased, with the biggest decreases among the most hesitant groups (e.g., Black race and ≤high school education, respectively). Changes in percent hesitant over time were fairly similar across US regions (panel C); however, there was a slightly smaller decrease in the Mountain region and slightly larger decrease in the South versus other regions. The gap in percent hesitant by county political environment, quantified in quartiles of percent Trump vote share in the 2020 presidential election, increased slightly between January and May, with the most hesitant group (highest quartile) having the smallest decrease (panel D).

[WarGamer]

29. thank you...

I give the links but people are too lazy or set in their ways to read them.

Graphics are best, I guess.

[ProfessorGAC]

49. What I See In That Chart...

...is that PhD holders have remained essentially flat. (Looks like a small 1 or 2% rise)
The HS and "some college" groups started much more hesitant, but hesitancy waned.
Now, PhDs are the highest number.
I'm going to surmise that the PhD group assumed that their background & intellect allowed a decision to be made early, and it simply didn't change. Their minds were made up & that's that!
The former 2 groups changed as more info was available & millions got vaxxed with little negative consequence.
I'll assign it to PhD arrogance. They know more than 99% of people in their areas of expertise & they extrapolate that to every subject. Hence, the arrogance.
Now, I'm likely considered arrogant, but I'm not foolish.
I got vaxxed more than 5 months ago.

[WarGamer]

50. +1000 well said... like always

[ProfessorGAC]

51. Which Part?

The part where I'm likely considered arrogant?

[WarGamer]

52. I can't presume to know such things...

[Happy Hoosier]

35. Not sure what that covers

My wife is a PhD. She’d fully vaxxed. So are all her colleagues that I know.

[Hekate]

40. PhDs are a tiny fraction of the overall population. Tiny.

Be that as it may, my friends and I are vaccinated.

[jpak]

54. My guess is that someone who doesn't have a PhD is an anti-intellectual that is jealous of PhD's

Imma rite?

[Iris]

56. You can get a PhD in any subject - without that context, this study is kind of meaningless

I work at a state university and most faculty are vaccinated. Staff, not so much, but faculty went over state lines to get vaccinated. (Don't worry. The state was Alabama so they did not take a vaccine away from anyone.)

But I can see some subject-area specialists forgoing a vaccine. (Based on my experience - math, computer science, nursing and education)

[mainer]

58. Meanwhile, MDs are 96% vaccinated

With an additional 2% planning to get vaccinated.

The people who actually know what they’re talking about.

https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ama-survey-shows-over-96-doctors-fully-vaccinated-against-covid-19