Political Partisanship and Trust in Government Predict Popular Support for COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates for Various Professions and Demographic Groups: A Research Note

• Author: Filip Viskupič,David L. Wiltse
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X221118888
• Published date: 01 March 2023
• Date: 01 March 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

American Politics Research

2023, Vol. 51(2) 139–146

© The Author(s) 2022

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/1532673X221118888

journals.sagepub.com/home/apr

Political Partisanship and Trust in

Government Predict Popular Support for

COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates for Various

Professions and Demographic Groups: A

Research Note

Filip Viskupiˇ

cand David L. Wiltse

Abstract

Due to the slow rate of COVID-19 vaccine uptake and the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant, governments are

considering mandating COVID-19 vaccination for specif‌ic professions and demographic groups. This study evaluates popular

attitudes toward such policies. We f‌ielded a survey of 535 registered voters in South Dakota to examine popular attitudes

towards vaccine mandates for f‌ive groups—children 12 and older, K-12 teachers, medical staff, nursing homes staff, and police

personnel. We estimated a series of logistic regression models and presented predicted probabilities to f‌ind the primary

determinants of these attitudes. Results revealed that political partisanship and trust in government are strong predictors of

support for vaccine mandates across all models. Should government and public health off‌icials wish to increase the proportion of

people vaccinated for COVID-19, they must recognize the limitations of current public health campaigns, and reshape their

efforts in congruence with scientif‌icf‌indings.

Keywords

COVID-19, vaccine mandate, public opinion

Introduction

Scientists agree t hat vaccinating a critical portion o f the society

is the most effective way to bring the COVID-19 pandemic

under control. While the number of vaccinated people grew

rapidly whenvaccines were f‌irst made available,there has been

little movement in the recent months despite the presence of

encouragements and incentives. Due to low uptake and the

rapid transmission of the highly infectious Omicron variant

and its several mutations, governments have started consid-

ering moreintrusive ways to increase vaccination rates, suchas

vaccine passports and vaccine mandates. So far, over 60

countries have mandated COVID-19 vaccinations for some

occupations or demographic groups, and Turkmenistan and

Indonesia require vaccination for all adults.

In the United States, about 67% of the eligible population

are fully vaccinated as of June 2022, despite a wide avail-

ability of multiple brands of vaccines at no cost and the

presence of encouragements and incentives. At the same

time, the country has the greatest number of COVID-19

deaths globally. For this reason, the federal government

has been considering a variety of mandates on specif‌ic classes

of individuals, such as healthcare workers, public employees,

military personnel, and employees of large private compa-

nies. Simultaneously, some states and localities across the

United States imposed vaccine mandates for their public

employees.

COVID-19 vaccine mandates have been a contested topic

among experts as well as the public. While a consensus exists

among scientists that vaccination is the most effective pro-

tection against the virus and that it is imperative to get as

many people vaccinated as possible, there is less agreement

on whether vaccination should be compulsory. Undoubtedly,

a mandate is more intrusive than existing approaches to boost

vaccination rates. Scientists continue to debate the various

legal, logistical, and ethical contours of COVID-19 vaccine

mandates for specif‌ic professions and demographic groups.

On the one hand, some experts made a strong case for vaccine

mandates for health care workers (Gostin et al., 2021;

South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, USA

Corresponding Author:

David Wiltse, School of American and Global Studies, South Dakota State

University, Brookings, SD, USA.

Email: david.wiltse@sdstate.edu