LEXINGTON, Ky. – There is no shortage of COVID-19 vaccine critics, from elected officials to private citizens to medical professionals. 

A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found rural Republicans are among the most ardent anti-vaxxers, a population that comprises a majority of people in the state of Kentucky.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican who was the first member of the Senate to contract the coronavirus, has been called out for promoting “naturally acquired immunity” over a vaccine and criticized “the left” for accepting immune theory with regard to vaccines, but not with regard to naturally acquired immunity. Paul has also been criticized for refusing to wear a mask on the Senate floor.

United States Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky), who has also had the coronavirus, said he would not get a vaccine and would instead “trust my natural immune system response over a pharmaceutically stimulated response.”

Anti-vaccine activists are typically loud and active when spreading their message, with one group recently joining an anti-mask group to call for “health freedom” and peddling government mistrust as a reason to not get a vaccine.     

The stable of vaccine critics goes well beyond conservative politicians and right-wing rural residents. Prominent activist and Children’s Health Defense Organization founder Robert Kennedy Jr., and the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons Executive Director Dr. Jane Orient have also been outspoken.

Orient, whose group opposes government involvement in medicine, told The New York Times that federal vaccine mandates are a “violation of human rights” and “a serious intrusion into individual liberty, autonomy, and parental decisions.” 

As the debate whether to reopen Kentucky’s schools to in-person learning continues, a report for public radio consortium Ohio Valley ReSource by Corrine Boyer and Liam Niemeyer showed up to 70% of school staff in western Kentucky are declining the vaccine.

Hopkins County Schools Superintendent Deanna Ashby said people declining the vaccine is a “political issue” and, as a result, she had not pushed hard for people to get it. The Kaiser Family Foundation found that political affiliation was as much a factor in whether to get the vaccine as age and level of education.   

Kentucky State Sen. Mike Bowling (R-Bowling Green), the majority whip, recently filed a bill that would expand Kentuckians’ ability to opt-out of vaccinations against infectious diseases, legislation medical experts and healthcare advocacy groups warn is dangerous and unnecessary, according to a report by Nadia Ramlagan for Public News Service. 

Wilson said he filed the bill after constituents expressed concern the government might force them to get a vaccine even though there is no such federal mandate. 

More Americans are confident that coronavirus vaccines will keep their communities safe, with almost half of respondents saying they would get vaccinated, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study.