Prognosis
Trump Helped Boost Vaccine Use After Endorsement in Online Ads
‘Where are the people speaking to the Trump supporters?’
Donald Trump
Photographer: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
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An online ad campaign featuring former president Donald Trump boosted vaccination rates in counties where rates of Covid-19 shots were lowest, according to research published Monday.
In a campaign aimed at more than 1,000 counties across the U.S., researchers created an ad using a Trump appearance on Fox News telling people to get vaccinated, and then during October last year ran the video on YouTube in places with low vaccination rates. In the counties where the ad was shown, about 103 more vaccinations were given, on average, than in counties that didn’t get ads.