Why are men reluctant to get the Covid-19 vaccine?

As of 8 August 2021, statistics show that men have been falling behind in terms of getting the Covid-19 vaccine. So much so that government has issued messages posing the question whether men are reluctant to get the vaccine and if so, why?

According to Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla, who spoke at a vaccination programme in Mpumalanga, men have been taking the back seat when it comes to getting the jab. He explained that the same happened when South Africa was battling HIV and he is concerned about the low rate at which men are going out to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Many experts have been looking into the reasons why men are reluctant to get the Covid-19 vaccine and some have come up with various hypotheses.

Men’s traditional masculinity

According to James Mahalik, an expert on masculinity and health outcomes at the Boston College, traditional masculinity is one thing that gets in the way of health-promoting behaviours.

His lab has done research on mask-wearing and found that men who conform to traditional, masculine norms have lower levels of empathy toward people who are vulnerable to Covid-19 and that they are less likely to trust the scientific community. This could also be the reason behind men refusing the Covid-19 vaccination.

Gender equality and vaccine rollouts

Of course, it could also be that the vaccine rollout was done in such a way that women got a head start. In May 2021, the World Health Organzation published an article stating that gender equality had to be put at the forefront of the Covid-19 response.

“In many settings, women face limited mobility to reach health facilities or vaccination sites, restricted decision-making power in their health seeking as well as limited access to and control over resources needed for advancing their health, including information about vaccines and vaccine safety.

Dr Choolwe Jacobs, leader and founder of the Zambia chapter of Women in Global Health said: “Women, particularly in lower- and middle-income countries, including in Zambia, do not have access to tests and many of them lack knowledge and awareness of testing. This is particularly the case in remote and rural areas.”

According to the World Health Organisation, women comprise 70% of the global health workforce, which could also have had an influence on the current statistics as frontline workers were those who formed part of the first phase of the vaccine rollout.

Health prevention behaviour in men

Women are more used to making decisions about their own health and the health of their families, says Jennifer Reich, a sociologist at the University of Colorado Denver.

She has been studying vaccination behaviour for more than a decade and says: “Women are accustomed to seeking out health care in the form of reproductive health from a young age on a biannual or annual basis, so much so that women are more primed to be thinking about preventing illness in a way that men tend not to participate in until they’re about 50.”

She believes that women are more likely to be in contact with health services as part of the process of searching for health-related information, which could be the reason why more women have gotten the Covid-19 vaccination than men.  

Conspiracies and political ideology

A poll recently done by the Washington Post showed that there is an alarming difference between Democrats and Republicans’ decision to get the jab.

According to the poll, 86% of Democrats have had at least one Covid-19 vaccine shot, where a mere 45% of Republicans have done the same. The poll also found that while 6% of Democrats are reluctant to get the vaccine, 47% of Republicans said that they will probably not get the vaccine.

ALSO READ: Steve Hofmeyr admits to believing that the Covid-19 rollout is just a money-making plot.

Political differences could therefore be another reason why men are reluctant to get the Covid-19 vaccine, considering that women are often more likely than men to lean toward the democratic party.