Study Finds Republican Mistrust Widens US Health Gap in 2024, Driving Vaccine and Doctor Avoidance
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · May 29
Study Finds Republican Mistrust Widens US Health Gap in 2024, Driving Vaccine and Doctor Avoidance
2 articles · Updated · The Guardian · May 29
A 2024 survey-based study in Nature Human Behaviour found conservatives are increasingly less likely than liberals to trust doctors, use medicines and seek care, widening US health disparities beyond Covid-era vaccination gaps.
Researchers said the divide began in the 2010s with education polarization, then deepened during the pandemic when social factors alone no longer explained worsening health outcomes on the right.
The study links that mistrust to concrete risks: conservatives were described as more likely to avoid hypertension treatment and routine care, even though cardiovascular disease remains the leading US killer.
NYU's Jay Van Bavel said the pattern is accelerating under the second Trump administration, with RFK Jr's anti-establishment messaging and red-state moves against vaccine mandates broadening resistance beyond Covid shots.
Researchers said the gap may keep growing but is hard to track because most large US health surveys still do not ask about respondents' political beliefs.