Religion at the Frontline: How Religion Influenced the Response of Local Government Officials to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Frontline officials (such as mayors and commissioners) are responsible for local-level responses to the COVID-19 pandemic across the United States. Their actions and attitudes, either in support of or opposition to public health recommendations, have resulted in widespread variation in local-level pandemic response. Despite evidence that religion significantly impacts the general public’s response to the pandemic, the influence of religion on officials’ behaviors and attitudes is unknown. Using a unique, two-wave, representative survey of frontline officials, we examine how religion influenced officials’ reported personal health behaviors (mask wearing, social distancing) and attitudes toward institutional reopenings. Results show high levels of compliance with public health recommendations, but religious nationalism negatively influences all outcomes. Other religious factors, like affiliation and attendance, vary in their influence and even work differently among officials compared to the general public. Frontline officials are key for understanding how religion influences the pandemic and state action more generally.

A potential new front in health communication to encourage vaccination: Health education teachers

OBJECTIVE

To assess the potential for a new channel for effective vaccine health communication in the United States: the nation's health education teachers.

METHODS

Content analysis of current curricular standards governing health education in the fifty states and the District of Columbia, and a 2019 nationally representative survey of middle and high school health education teachers in the United States.

RESULTS

Only 12 states require any discussion of vaccines or immunization, and none provide detailed guidance to teachers on critical knowledge that might help young adults make wise immunization decisions. Only 42% of teachers discuss benefits of vaccination and immunization in their classes. In contrast to the teaching of evolution and climate change, only a small minority (2.4%) are classified as vaccine skeptics.

CONCLUSIONS

Public school health education classes are an under-utilized health communication channel with the unrealized potential to convey medically accurate information to millions of young Americans. Low levels of vaccine skepticism among teachers suggest that this channel can be effectively utilized to improve vaccination uptake and thereby improve collective health outcomes.

The Racial Gap in Confidence in Science

African Americans, compared to Whites, are starkly underrepresented in scientific and technological professions, are especially reluctant to participate as research subjects, and they express attitudes that are skeptical of science and scientific institutions. This article seeks to explain the racial gap in confidence in science (race being socially defined), putting to empirical test explanations suggested by research on human capital, inequality in educational opportunity, and culture. The results show that differential returns to schooling account for about a third of the racial divide, with various cultural mechanisms explaining most of the balance.

Evolution and creationism in America's classrooms: a national portrait

Despite many legal and legislative decisions, a new study shows that one in eight high school biology instructors teach their students that creationism or intelligent design is a valid alternative to evolutionary biology.