These data allow you to examine the relationship between county-level Trump support and COVID-19 vaccination rates as of June 15, 2021. The analysis script is written in Stata version 17.

Importance: COVID-19 vaccine development has progressed at unprecedented speed. Widespread public uptake of the vaccine is crucial to stem the pandemic. Objective: To examine the factors associated with survey participants’ self-reported likelihood of selecting and receiving a hypothetical COVID-19 vaccine. Design, Setting and Participants: A survey of a nonprobability convenience sample of 2000 recruited participants including a choice-based conjoint analysis was conducted to estimate respondents’ probability of choosing a vaccine and willingness to receive vaccination . Participants were then asked to evaluate their willingness to receive each vaccine individually. The survey presented respondents with 5 choice tasks. In each, participants evaluated 2 hypothetical COVID-19 vaccines and were asked whether they would choose vaccine A, vaccine B, or neither vaccine . Vaccine attributes included efficacy, protection duration, major side effects, minor side effects, US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval process, national origin of vaccine, and endorsement. Levels of each attribute for each vaccine were randomly assigned and attribute order was randomized across participants. Survey data wereas collected on July 9, 2020. Main Outcomes and Measures: Average marginal component effect sizes and marginal means were calculated to estimate the relationship between each vaccine attribute-level and the probability of the respondent choosing a vaccine and self-reported willingness to receive vaccination . Results: A total of 1,971 US adults responded to the survey (median age 43; IQR: 30 to 58); 999 (51%) were women, 1,432 (73%) White, 277 (14%) Black, and 190 (10%) Latinx. An increase in efficacy from 50% to 70% was associated with a higher n increased the estimated probability of choosing a vaccine ofby .07 [95% CI: .06 to .09]; and an increase from 50% to 90% was associated with a higher probability of choosing a vaccine of .16 [95% CI: .15 to .18]. An increase in protection duration from 1 to 5 years was associated with a higher probability of choosing a vaccine of .05 [95% CI: .04 to .07]. A decrease in the incidence of major side effects from 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 1,000,000 was associated with a higher probability of choosing a vaccine of .07 [95% CI: .05 to .08]. An FDA emergency use authorization was associated with a lower probability of choosing a vaccine of -.03 [95% CI: -.01 to -.04] compared with full FDA approval. A vaccine that originated from a non-US country was associated with a lower probability of choosing a vaccine [China: -.13 (95% CI: -.11 to -.15 UK: -.04 (95% CI: -.02 to -.06)]. Endorsements from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [.09 (95% CI: .07 to .11)] and World Health Organization [.06 (95% CI: .04 to .08)], compared with an endorsement from President Trump, were associated with higher probabilities of choosing a vaccine. Analyses of participants’ willingness to receive each vaccine when assessed individually yield similar results. Efficacy was the most important factor. An increase in efficacy from 50% to 90% was associated with a 10% higher marginal mean willingness to receive a vaccine [.51 to .61]. A reduction in the incidence of major side effects was associated with a 4% higher marginal mean willingness to receive a vaccine [.54 to .58]. A vaccine originating in China was associated with a 10% lower willingness to receive a vaccine versus one developed in the US [.60 to .50] Endorsements from the CDC and WHO were associated with substantial increases in willingness to receive a vaccine, 7% and 6%, respectively , from a baseline endorsement by President Trump [.52 to .59; .52 to .58]. Conclusions and Relevance: In this survey study of US adults, vaccine-related attributes and political characteristics were associated with self-reported preferences for choosing a hypothetical COVID-19 vaccine and self-reported willingness to receive vaccination. These results may help inform public health campaigns to address vaccine hesitancy when a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available.

This contains the codes and data needed to replicate the tables in the paper. There are three different sets of data for the county-level cross-sectional, the metro-level cross-sectional, and the county-level panel estimations.

The 1998 Lancet paper by Wakefield et al., despite subsequent retraction and evidence indicating no causal link between vaccinations and autism, triggered significant parental concern. The aim of this study was to analyze the online information available on this topic. Using localized versions of Google, we searched “autism vaccine” in English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Mandarin, and Arabic and analyzed 200 websites for each search engine result page (SERP). A common feature was the newsworthiness of the topic, with news outlets representing 25–50% of the SERP, followed by unaffiliated websites (blogs, social media) that represented 27–41% and included most of the vaccine-negative websites. Between 12 and 24% of websites had a negative stance on vaccines, while most websites were pro-vaccine (43–70%). However, their ranking by Google varied. While in Google.com, the first vaccine-negative website was the 43rd in the SERP, there was one vaccine-negative webpage in the top 10 websites in both the British and Australian localized versions and in French and two in Italian, Portuguese, and Mandarin, suggesting that the information quality algorithm used by Google may work better in English. Many webpages mentioned celebrities in the context of the link between vaccines and autism, with Donald Trump most frequently. Few websites (1–5%) promoted complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) but 50–100% of these were also vaccine-negative suggesting that CAM users are more exposed to vaccine-negative information. This analysis highlights the need for monitoring the web for information impacting on vaccine uptake.

ObjectivesTo investigate whether the 2021 U.S. presidential inauguration contributed to a widening of partisan divides in COVID-19 vaccine attitudes and uptake.MethodsWe leverage the presidential inauguration as a natural experiment and analyze data from the Household Pulse Survey and CDC vaccination records. Using a difference-in-differences framework with continuous treatment, we examine how the transition differentially affected state-level vaccine refusal rates and county-level vaccination rates, based on varying levels of partisanship as measured by the Trump–Biden vote gap.ResultsFollowing Biden’s inauguration, vaccine refusal declined more in pro-Biden states. Distrust in government and vaccines accounted for approximately 80% of the interstate variation. County-level analysis revealed that for every 1 percentage point increase in Trump’s vote share over Biden’s, counties experienced an additional 0.515%–2.674% decline in vaccination rates among adults aged 65+. These effects were more pronounced in politically loyal and high-turnout counties.ConclusionThe presidential transition appears to have widened partisan divides regrading COVID-19 vaccines. These findings highlight the need for depoliticized health messaging and bipartisan strategies to mitigate the influence of partisanship on public health.

July 2024 saw an incredibly close assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump while he was on the campaign trail for the 2024 presidential election. While speaking to his audience, a bullet whizzed past Trump's head, nicking him on the ear and drawing blood in the process, before the Secret Service escorted him to safety. One spectator was killed while shielding family members from the gunfire, and two more were shot but survived, before the perpetrator was shot and killed by security services. Throughout U.S. history, there have been numerous plots and attempts to assassinate U.S. presidents. The first known case was a failed attempt on Andrew Jackson's life in 1835, where both the assassin's guns misfired due to moisture in the air and Jackson then beat the culprit into submission with his cane. More recent attempts include separate, high-profile cases in October 2018, where sixteen bombs were sent via mail to prominent Democrats (including presidents Obama and Clinton), Trump critics, and news outlets, while another culprit sent letters laced with ricin to President Trump and senior U.S. military figures. Throughout history, the majority of these plots have been uncovered or prevented, however several have come close to achieving their aims and four have resulted in the successful assassination of a sitting president. Successful attempts The first successful assassination occurred in 1865, when Confederate sympathizers and spies plotted to kill the three highest-ranking figures in the Union, in an effort to re-ignite the American Civil War. Of the three targets, only Lincoln was assassinated after being shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln died within 12 hours of being shot, which was much sooner than the second presidential assassination, where James Garfield took almost four months to eventually die from his wounds after being shot in a train station in 1881. The third U.S. president to be assassinated was William McKinley, who was shot twice while meeting members of the public just six months into his second term. The attempt was not immediately fatal and McKinley was even able to dissuade bystanders from killing his attacker, however, one of the bullets was never found and McKinley passed away one week after the attack. The most recent U.S. president to have been assassinated was John F. Kennedy, who was shot by former marine and defector to the Soviet Union, Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald shot Kennedy from the sixth floor of a nearby warehouse during a public motorcade in Dallas, Texas in 1963, and Kennedy died almost immediately. Although official investigations, forensic tests and eyewitness accounts corroborate the official story that Oswald acted alone, a high number of conspiracy theories surround the event, and a large share of the U.S. population believes that the assassination is part of a larger plot or cover-up, orchestrated by either the CIA, mafia, or foreign entities (among other theories). Close calls While on the 1912 campaign trail, former president Theodore Roosevelt was shot in the chest before giving a speech. Roosevelt knew that the injury was not fatal, and proceeded to deliver an 84 minute speech before seeking medical attention. In 1981, a gunman shot six bullets at Ronald Reagan as he was meeting a crowd outside a Washington hotel, injuring the president and three others in the attack. One bullet had ricocheted off the side of a car, punctured the president's lung, and caused severe internal bleeding. The president almost died en route to the hospital, but doctors were able to stabilize him and remove the bullet; Reagan returned to the White House less than two weeks later. Another close call was where a gunman fired shots at President-Elect Franklin D. Roosevelt's car in 1933, missing the President but killing the Mayor of Chicago in the attack. Coincidentally, the only female culprits in these attempts both tried to assassinate President Gerald Ford, in two unrelated attacks in California in September, 1975. The first (who was a member of the Manson Family) was stopped before she could get a shot off at the president, while the second was restrained after shooting twice and injuring one bystander -Ford was unharmed in both attacks. Another near miss was an unsuccessful attempt on Abraham Lincoln's life nine months before his successful assassination; the bullet went through his distinctive, stovepipe hat as he was riding to his summer cottage one evening. The only attempt included here that did not involve a firearm and did not take place in the United States was when a grenade was thrown on stage in Tbilisi, Georgia, as George W. Bush was making a speech there in 2005. Although the pin had been removed, the handkerchief used to conceal the grenade was wrapped too tightly around it for the lever for it to detach; nobody was injured in this attempt; however, the culprit did kill one agent as he was being arrested two month...

The Center for Global Development (CGD) made "back-of-the-envelope" estimates for the number of lives saved by U.S. foreign aid worldwide per year and found that U.S. foreign aid prevented almost 1.65 million deaths per year just from HIV/AIDS. Furthermore, the CGD estimated that U.S. foreign aid saved just over half a million lives per year from vaccine-preventable diseases. In January 2025, President Trump ordered a pause on funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and a 90-day review of all U.S. foreign assistance. By the end of March, the review had been completed, 83 percent of USAID programs were terminated, and it was announced that certain USAID functions would be overtaken by the Department of State while all others would be discontinued. Trump has said that the United States spends too much on foreign aid and accused USAID of being corrupt and a waste of money. However, foreign aid accounts for just one percent of the federal budget. Furthermore, it is predicted that millions of people will die due to the dissolution of USAID, as vulnerable people around the world will no longer be able to access prevention and treatment for diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.

As of March 10, 2023, there have been 1.1 million deaths related to COVID-19 in the United States. There have been 101,159 deaths in the state of California, more than any other state in the country – California is also the state with the highest number of COVID-19 cases.

The vaccine rollout in the U.S. Since the start of the pandemic, the world has eagerly awaited the arrival of a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine. In the United States, the immunization campaign started in mid-December 2020 following the approval of a vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. As of March 22, 2023, the number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the U.S. had reached roughly 673 million. The states with the highest number of vaccines administered are California, Texas, and New York.

Vaccines achieved due to work of research groups Chinese authorities initially shared the genetic sequence to the novel coronavirus in January 2020, allowing research groups to start studying how it invades human cells. The surface of the virus is covered with spike proteins, which enable it to bind to human cells. Once attached, the virus can enter the cells and start to make people ill. These spikes were of particular interest to vaccine manufacturers because they hold the key to preventing viral entry.

Estimation sample n = 1,061; variable definitions and coding are given in Table 1.