The resistance of many rural Americans to coronavirus vaccines is often attributed to their politics (support of Donald Trump) or their media habits (skepticism of science), but it has deeper, wider roots, Timothy DeLizza writes for Undark, which defines itself as a foundation-funded "non-profit, editorially independent digital magazine exploring the intersection of science and society."

"Many poor, rural whites have legitimate reasons to distrust the health care system — and real barriers to access," Undark says in its subhead on DeLizza's story, which says, "Vaccine hesitant conservatives are also disproportionately rural. This creates unique access problems, including shortages of health-care workers to administer the vaccines and long driving distances to vaccination sites."
Also, "Class is far more predictive of vaccine hesitancy than either politics or race, with working-class white people being twice as likely to be hesitant as White college graduates," DeLizza reports, citing polling by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
"Poor White people expressing hesitancy typically have strong religious beliefs, face disproportionate economic and access barriers to vaccination, and have legitimate reasons to mistrust the medical system," DeLizza writes.

Read the full article about vaccine hesitancy in rural areas by Al Cross at The Rural Blog.