Are people who watch Fox News still more hesitant to get a COVID-19 vaccine than most other news consumers?
Polls find that vaccine hesitancy among Fox viewers has dropped in recent months but remains higher than among other mainstream news audiences.
An August 2021 Morning Consult poll found that 27% of Fox viewers were “unsure...or unwilling to get a COVID-19 shot,” down from 37% in mid-March. In contrast, CNN, MSNBC and New York Times consumers all expressed vaccine hesitancy at rates below 20%. The same poll found that Facebook, Snapchat, and Reddit users had vaccine hesitancy rates between 30% and 35%.
Some Fox News coverage and commentary has conveyed skepticism about vaccines. Media Matters for America, a liberal nonprofit that tracks conservative news coverage, reported that between June 28 through July 11, “57% of segments about coronavirus vaccines on the network included claims that undermined vaccination efforts.”
Many factors aside from media consumption influence attitudes towards vaccines. Vaccine hesitancy is lower among Republicans who trust Fox News than among Republicans who don’t trust any TV news source, according to a July Public Religion Research Institute poll.