During the COVID-19 pandemic, a significant portion of the population chose to remain unvaccinated, even in countries with high access to the vaccine.
The scientific journal Nature conducted a study among vaccinated and unvaccinated citizens in 21 countries and showed that vaccinated people expressed discriminatory attitudes towards the unvaccinated. In fact, they were "as high as the discriminatory attitudes suffered by common targets like immigrant and minority populations." The study reported only two countries which did not show show evidence of this type of discrimination: Hungary and Romania.
In contrast, the study showed that there was no discrimination by unvaccinated persons against vaccinated persons, except for what the study calls "negative affect" in Germany and the United States.
The researchers argue that elites and the vaccinated population appealed to moral obligations to increase widespread vaccine adoption. However, the study shows that, at the same time, "discriminatory attitudes including support for the removal of fundamental rights simultaneously emerged."
