Rejection of vaccinating children is greater among Bolsonarists – 09/07/2023 – Health

Supporters of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) disagree more with vaccinating children against Covid and also have lower adherence to immunization programs compared to voters of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).

The table consists of research developed by SoU_Ciência (Center for Society, University and Science Studies), at Unifesp (Federal University of São Paulo), together with the Ideia Institute (formerly Ideia Big Data).

1,295 people aged 18 or over were interviewed via cell phone, from all regions of the country, between the 5th and 10th of July this year. The margin of error is three percentage points.

Among those interviewed, 38.6% said they voted for Lula (PT) and 36.7% for Bolsonaro (PL) in the second round of the last election. Another 15.8% declared a null or blank vote and 9% said they did not know or did not want to answer.

Rejection of childhood vaccination against Covid reaches 27.2% among those who declared their vote for Bolsonaro, against 2.2% of PT members. The proportion of respondents who said they disagreed with vaccination and did not vaccinate their children and those who only said they disagreed with vaccinating children are added together.

The current president’s supporters are more in favor of the Covid child vaccination campaign (89.6% against 49.1% of Bolsonarists) and the vaccination of children against polio and measles (92.1% versus 83.6% of Bolsonarists ).

“These data demonstrate how Bolsonaro used the pandemic to promote the political polarization that interested him and was accompanied by his followers”, says Pedro Arantes, professor at Unifesp and coordinator of the research.

“Adherence to vaccination programs against polio and measles has always been high and global benchmarks for success. Even so, it has suffered a drop in recent years due to the anti-Covid vaccine campaign led by the president and supporters. Thus, even well-known and reliable vaccines have suffered loss of membership due to a rebound effect of the denialist polarization we are experiencing.”

Among those interviewed, 17.9% of Bolsonaro voters disagree with the phrase “vaccines are widely tested and have proven effectiveness”, a percentage that rises to 2.8% among Lula voters.

For Soraya Smaili, professor of pharmacology at Unifesp and coordinator of the research center, there was an influence from anti-vaccine groups on Brazilian society’s opinion about vaccines. “In 2022, the Bolsonarist groups gained strength again, this time attacking childhood vaccination, they influenced in such a way that we see the result, vaccination coverage in children is much lower than the percentage in adults.”

According to a survey by Observa Infância, from Fiocruz, with data up to August 9, 11.4% of children aged 6 months to 5 years were completely immunized against Covid, a rate that drops to 7.9% in children ages 5 to 11, with data up to July this year.

Throughout the Bolsonaro government, the former president and his allies took a series of actions to minimize the effects of Covid on children, spread misinformation regarding side effects and reduced the availability of doses to states and municipalities. The current Health Ministry, upon taking office in January, told Sheet that there was no stock of childhood vaccines from the previous government, both for Covid and for other vaccines in the national vaccination calendar.

Another fact observed in the research was Bolsonaro’s influence especially on the evangelical community.

In the survey, the Catholic religion was followed by 39.1% of participants, while evangelicals corresponded to 29%. Other religions or no religion represented 32% of participants.

While 81.1% of evangelicals say they are in favor of vaccinating children against polio and measles, this figure drops to 55.2% in support of childhood vaccination against Covid. Among Catholics, support is 87.5% and 74.8% respectively.

“Evangelicals were in the eye of the storm and were the preferential target of Bolsonaro’s populism. They joined the former president’s denialist speech. But it is important to highlight that, after the pandemic and the hurricane of misinformation, they are interested in supporting the SUS, the science, a Truth Commission to judge the crimes of the pandemic and looking for reliable information”, says Arantes.

From the beginning of the year until August 9, 80 children died from Covid in the country, according to a survey by Observa Infância, from Fiocruz. The syndrome known as SIM-P, which can occur in severe cases of Sars-CoV-2 infection, had an eight times higher mortality rate in Brazil compared to the United States.

Eder Gatti, director of the National Immunization Program at the Ministry of Health, stated that the department launched, at the beginning of the year, the National Movement for Vaccination to increase the population’s confidence in vaccination. “In addition, the folder offers planning tools [aos estados e municípios] to optimize vaccination, (…) such as extramural vaccination, in schools and in public environments, in addition to that traditionally carried out in health units”, he said.

Gatti also said that the ministry made extra funds worth R$151 million available to states and municipalities to encourage vaccination actions. “We hope to strengthen routine and Covid vaccinations, available to all children in Brazil.”