Decoding State Vaccination Rate Using Educational Aptitude, Income, and Political Affiliation

COVID-19 cost almost 700,000 (seven hundred thousand) deaths in the Unites States and low vaccination rates are widely seen as undermining individual and community protection. The objective of the study was to evaluate the risk factors associated with lower COVID-19 vaccination rates in the United States. The study evaluated the effect of red-blue political affiliation, and the effect of the US state’s average educational aptitude scores and per capita income on states vaccination rates. The study found that states with concomitantly lower income along with lower educational aptitude scores are less vaccinated while the states with higher income have higher vaccination rates even among those with lower educational aptitude scores. These findings stayed significant after adjusting for red-blue political affiliation where states with red political affiliation have lower vaccination rates. Further study is needed to evaluate how to stop online misinformation among states with low income and low educational aptitude scores; and whether such an effort will increase overall vaccination rates in the United States.