The overlooked reasons so many rural Americans don't trust the Covid vaccine

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:
Julian Sanchez
@normative
This touches on a point I’ve long been convinced of: The collapse of local news has been a huge factor in the decline in trust in journalism. Because for a lot of people now a “journalist” is only some alien being who lives in NY or DC.

Opinion | The overlooked reasons so many rural Americans don't trust the Covid vaccine
Many in rural America have become prey to misinformation and overconfident quacks because they live in health care and media deserts.
nbcnews.com
9:16 PM · Oct 9, 2021

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/covid-vaccine-mistrust-fueling-spike-rural-deaths-here-s-what-ncna1280746


When we think of the painful toll of Covid-19, we often picture urban scenes: lines for tests, overflowing hospitals, refrigerated trucks serving as makeshift morgues. Yet, staggering new data shows that the death rate from Covid in rural areas is now double what it is in urban ones. You would think that fact, coupled with medical professionals pleading with people in rural America to get vaccinated, would lead more to get their shots. Yet, people in rural states lead the list of those who remain unvaccinated, putting themselves and others at risk.

It’s enough to make increasingly angry vaccinated people shout: “Why won’t you listen to your doctor?”

To which, I respond: “What if they don’t have one?”

Many in rural America aren’t vaccinated because two pernicious forces — the implosion of the rural health care system and the decay of local news — have left them with limited sources of information. That has allowed them to become prey to misinformation and overconfident quacks.

*snip*

[Woodswalker]

1. Would it really be any different if they still had their local news?

I think we spend way too much time trying to figure out this segment of society.

[I-Scream]

11. You don't think the pols & talking faces bend to the pressure of media outside of their locales?

Most politicians are egoists and power hungry, just dieing to lap up the benefits they earn, that are only dreamed of by the general population.

My opinion is that people are reduced to garnering the truth from bits and pieces of of left or right leaning news outlets. (If there is any truth there) Observing and thinking is my only hope for determining what is actually going on.

Government, politics & the media seem irretrievably broken to me.

[Skittles]

24. agreed

I think they believe crap because they want to believe crap and I am honestly tired of hearing what they think.

[malletgirl02]

31. Plus if they have Fox News

They have access to CNN and other news channels.

[Crunchy Frog]

2. Yeah, the governors and the legislatures and the Big Media propagandists,

and the flouting of basic safety precautions being a tribal marker for Trumpism, and making a stand for Freedumb!!!1!

That has absolutely nothing to do with it. I'm certain about that.

[bottomofthehill]

3. Because they are fucking morons.

[flying rabbit]

4. Tribalism

My friends believe this, so do I. Gotta fit in, it's easier that way.

[BlueIdaho]

5. They don't read, they can't read.

Most can’t read above a 6th grade level. So they turn on the FOX or OAN tap and let that shit soak their brains until they are beyond redemption. Maybe we should stop feeling so bad about the disappearing family farms and embrace corporate farming.

[Ziggysmom]

6. Democrats need a broadcasting company to compete with faux news. Call it the Truth Network.

[Lucky Luciano]

7. Like "Pravda."

[orleans]

10. i can't imagine anyone would tune in to the "truth network"

--sounds too much like a bill of goods from the get-go

call it "america's news" or something, give it a patriotic feel & they'd tune in

[SoCalDavidS]

13. Better Yet, Call It The "Owning The Libs" Channel nt

[Ziggysmom]

20. That name was a fail at sarcasm 🙄

You're 100% right, it would need to sound patriotic to get folks watching.

[czarjak]

8. Crowell, Texas is ground zero. In plain sight. Ask J. H..

[Jakes Progress]

15. J.H. ?

[diane in sf]

9. They watch fox and listen to stupid and corrupt ministers. The educated and smart ones tend to leave

these hopeless areas. The only radio they often get is right wing am screamers.

[Lithos]

12. Yep - but goes beyond that

The loss of local papers, local radio, and the dominance of urban life in TV shows and the like means people no longer feel attached. This is the vacuum Rush Limpballs and the pseudo-Evangelical religion/politicians have been extremely diligent in filling. Cults find and appeal to people who feel out of place.

L-

[PatrickforB]

14. And guess who is responsible for that? Yep. Ronald Reagan.

When he slithered into the White House back in '81, we had no idea of the damage he would do, and one of the most pernicious acts he committed was the pocket veto of the Fairness Doctrine.

This doctrine required all news stations who broadcast over the airways to be local, and to present news in a fair and unbiased way. Everyone used to have a local news station, but now those are gone and six giant octopus-like corporations own virtually all the media outlets.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

16. I think the essential problem is that science and history are very poorly taught

in schools. All too often the science or history teacher is also known as "Coach". Not always. But far too often. And even when they don't go by that name, are regular teachers, they may not be all that good.

When I was a sophomore in high school, some decades ago, in a very good public school with mostly good teachers, I had a world history teacher who apparently knew less history than I did. He said that Mary Tudor (later queen of England, known to history as Bloody Mary) fled England when her brother, Edward VI was king. I promptly spoke up and said, That never happened. She never left England, and if she had she probably would never have returned. But she never left in the first place.

The teacher was amazed, because back then, in 1963, students simply did not challenge teachers. But I really knew my Tudor history, and could not let that go unchallenged. To his credit, my history teacher said he'd check up, and the very next day acknowledged that I was right.

Lucky me, for complex reasons I don't need to go into here, I got to be switched to a different world history class the next semester. Although that caused some problems, as the teacher did cumulative grade points, based on quizzes, homework credits, test scores, and the like which established the grading curve. During the first semester the class norms had been established. Well, I came into that class like gangbusters, because I really loved history. I was quickly getting 100% on all the quizzes and homework. The teacher saw that there was dissension in the ranks, and quickly announced that "Poindexter Oglethorpe" was not included in the class average. If I had been, my scores were so far above everyone elses, it would have totally destroyed the grading curve. Once he made that announcement, the other kids were willing to talk to me again.

[BootinUp]

17. I think it's gonna get worse

B4 it gets better.

[W_HAMILTON]

18. They sure trust Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity.

Once again, people try to find reasons rather than just admitting the obvious: they're ultimately racist and their entire persona is based around that. If you hate brown and black people like they do, they'll happily trust your lies about the economy, and COVID, and who won the 2020 election, etc.

[Corgigal]

19. Or they live in a hate bubble,

where everyone has to think the same to belong.

Some of us don’t fall prey to this, or don’t need a lot of people around. I also get the New Yorker, Washington Post and Vanity Fair monthly. I also watch my favorite Columbia university virologist weekly on YouTube on TWIV.

It’s your personally responsibility to seek out responsible media to get information. You can make a mistake, but making a mistake on a pandemic virus kills.

[no_hypocrisy]

21. I can see that.

Here in northern NJ, part of the NYC metropolitan area, we have no real access to "local news".

Bergen Record sold to Gannett. Stories, even minimum #, aren't free.
Newark Star Ledger, same thing. All stories require a subscription.
Local town paper is out of business.
Weekly paper has front page stories only about feel-good high school graduates, etc.

We have News 12, but you need to have a cable subscription to access that channel.

[The Magistrate]

22. I Am Very Tired Of Alibis For These People, Ma'am

It begins to sound like relatives trying to 'understand' the junkie they're bailing out for fifth time, after he stole grandma's purse and crashed the car. Why does he do it? Because he's a fucking idiot. How did he get to be a fucking idiot? By putting in a lot pf work at it, hard work, the only real work he's ever done in his life. Were there problems afflicting him? Yes, serious ones. But dealing with them by becoming a junkie was a choice, among various available options, some of which surely would have worked a damned sight better.

These people are ignorant because they choose to be. It isn't that they are in 'news deserts' or because there's no local hospital. Those things are consequences of the ignorance they chose for themselves. They are convinced they are better than anyone else, and that belief can only be sustained by maintaining themselves in ignorance. They cannot know things, cannot think critically, because doing so would burst their illusion of being better than all the rest.

Is there a great deal of downright lying in circulation about vaccines and the current plague? Does it rise to the top of news feeds and such on social media? Yes to both, but this is only possible because the people who consume and believe such swill long ago made the decision to remain ignorant, to value ignorance as an important element of their character. The things we are to bleed over their believing, their being duped by, are things so obviously false, so rabidly idiotic, that real determination is required to treat them as true in the first place.

[mnhtnbb]

25. As I have said

Ignorant and proud of it could be the motto for many states in this country.

[JI7]

23. THis is BS

[EYESORE 9001]

28. Some supporting statement for your thesis would be nice

[Scrivener7]

26. This is just another version of "Let's go to a rural diner and find morons to interview, and

pretend that their mouth spewings make any sense at all."

I don't get local news, and yet I can still understand that a plague is not something you wish away.

They are dying because they are owning the liberals.

[sinkingfeeling]

27. True. Also one of the reasons we no longer think of 'community'. It's

all about the self now.

[dalton99a]

29. Also because bullshit rightwing websites are free and good reliable news sources are paywalls

[Paladin]

30. I see plenty of reasons on this thread.

But I don't see any plausible excuses for not being vaccinated. Not a single one. The unvaccinated are responsible for broadening and extending this plague by months, going on years. Millions are paying the price. Vaccinations should be mandatory for everybody, other than young children and those with medically-confirmed excuses. End of story.