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Vaccine-Skeptic Physicians and Patient Vaccination Decisions

Andreas Steinmayr and Manuel Rossi

Health Economics, 2024, 33(3): 509–525

Article (PDF)IZA DPReplication
Line chart: COVID-19 vaccination rates over time in municipalities whose only GP signed the vaccine-skeptic open letter, compared with municipalities whose GP did not; the first stay lower.
Share of residents with at least one COVID-19 vaccination in municipalities with and without a vaccine-skeptic GP (Figure 2). Steinmayr and Rossi (2024), Health Economics, Figure 2.

Abstract

What is the role of general practitioners (GPs) in supporting or hindering public health efforts? We investigate the influence of vaccine-skeptic GPs on their patients' decisions to get a COVID-19 vaccination. We identify vaccine-skeptic GPs from the signatories of an open letter in which 199 Austrian physicians expressed their skepticism about COVID-19 vaccines. We examine small rural municipalities where patients choose a GP primarily based on geographic proximity. These vaccine-skeptic GPs reduced the vaccination rate by 5.6 percentage points. This estimate implies that they discouraged 7.9% of the vaccinable population. The effect appears to stem from discouragement rather than rationing vaccine access.

Cite (BibTeX)
@article{Steinmayr2024vaccine,
  author      = {Steinmayr, Andreas and Rossi, Manuel},
  title       = {{Vaccine-Skeptic Physicians and Patient Vaccination Decisions}},
  journal     = {Health Economics},
  year        = {2024},
  volume      = {33},
  number      = {3},
  pages       = {509--525},
  doi         = {10.1002/hec.4781}
}

All publications as BibTeX

Earlier versions

  • IZA Discussion Paper No. 15730 (2022), "Vaccine-Skeptic Physicians and COVID-19 Vaccination Rates"
  • Working Papers in Economics and Statistics, University of Innsbruck, No. 2022-16 (2022)

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