When it comes to being opposed to the Covid vaccine, Wyoming is tops in the nation and by a significant margin, according to a new poll.
The poll conducted by The Morning Consult, a polling company which specializes in survey research technology, showed Wyoming the overwhelming leader in opposing the vaccine with 35% of its residents stating they will not receive it.
The poll, released Thursday morning, showed Idaho and Oklahoma next in line with 29% of those citizens opposing the shot while Massachusetts residents were the most accepting with only 9% planning not to receive the vaccine.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, Wyoming has the second-lowest vaccination rate at 44.6% while Idaho is at 44.4%.
In September, Natrona County Health Officer Dr. Mark Dowell told Cowboy State Daily that he had watched “a lot of people die unnecessarily” and thought residents of Wyoming would have started to feel differently about the vaccine.
“When nearly 5 billion people have had this vaccine and people are saying it’s not safe, it’s as if the public is suddenly become scientists and I just don’t know where that comes from,” Dowell said.
“It’s like me trying to tell an electrician how to wire a house. I wouldn’t do that. I wouldn’t know what I’m talking about. That’s how it feels,” he said.
However, that opposition does change Dowell said. But it takes getting hospitalized for that to happen.
“The majority who have been hospitalized with Covid — what comes out of their mouth is: “Oh my God, why didn’t I get the vaccine. Oh yeah, we hear that universally,” he said.
Dowell said the vaccine has unfortunately become political unlike times in the past when people would line up and get the smallpox and polio vaccine without thinking about it.
“Everyone stepped up to the plate and got it. and we got rid of both of those in the United States,” he said. “Yet now, it’s political and we are allowing it to go on and kill people.”
The polling company said the state-level vaccine opposition rates were based on 208,000 surveys conducted from October 9 to November 8. An average of 4,088 surveys were conducted in each state.
