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Attitudes to COVID-19 vaccinations spread to public health perception
Researchers are seeing a divide in adult flu vaccine uptake between states, with low flu vaccination uptake in states that had low COVID-19 vaccination rates, whilst states that had high COVID-19 vaccination have increased flu vaccine uptake.
The study by the University of California suggests that attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccinations have also spilled over to the public’s general health behaviors, demonstrated by the low uptake of influenza in low COVID-19 vaccinated states.
“Many Americans who never before declined a routine, potentially life-saving vaccine have started to do so,” said the study’s lead author Dr. Richard Leuchter, expressing his alarm in the university’s media release.