I have been nibbling at this Nine Nations cultural background to vaccination rates, but Colin Woodard, using his similar (11)American Nations schema, puts numbers to it and gives his interpretation why this is according to those cultural traits that go back to colonial times. You can detect his bias easily, but I don't think he gets it wrong. (Click to enlarge.)
11 comments:
Interesting, but "New Netherland, the modern-day New York metropolitan area, has a dedication to free expression and multiculturalism that stems from the 18th-century Dutch commitment to globalization"...I understand that the Dutch Patroons who ruled the area back in the day were extremely grasping and ruthless people. Did they really have a dedication to free expression? Regarding multiculturalism, I guess we could ask the Indians what their experience was.
Woodard loves, loves, love New Netherlands and credits much of what was good about America to it more than the other regions. He picks and chooses what he reports about the Dutch and their colonies in his books. Mostly, they had free blacks and people were okay with that. That's the core of his argument. True as far as it goes and they deserve some credit. But other colonies run by the Dutch might also have a different picture of them.
There's a difficulty in conflating what he's calling 'communtarianism' with 'embrace of the common good.' I know plenty of folks up here who will get out of bed at night in a thunderstorm to come help strangers who call 9-11 for help, and they do it for no pay. There's a sense of common good there which is somehow coherent with a love of natural liberty, and a deep suspicion of meddling government. In a way, they're part of the government; but they only come if you call them, and they only do what you ask.
Northern New England is worst in the country in charitable giving, which parallels churchgoing nationwide, which we are also worst at. On the other hand, we have always led in building schools, hospitals, libraries, roads and bridges. I don't know what the numbers are state-by state for the type of informal volunteering you describe. People help neighbors, but do they do it more or less here than anywhere else? I don't know.
Compare his map to this one given what has been previously discussed about vaccination percentage by race.
Yes, good point. I keep my focus on the colonial history which was only indirectly affected by the black and native populations. But over time those populations also influenced the culture, and now make decisions about things like vaccinations which might not track with the white population in their region entirely. I certainly should havve remembered, as my son in Nome tells me that the vaccination rate among the Yupik and Inupiat peoples is quite low, some very adamant they are not going to do what white people tell them to and will not get a white people's vaccination. AFAIK there is no history of experimentation on them that would make them suspicious, they are just suspicious of everything about white people. As is usual, this is related to believing an inaccurate history of what their lives were like pre-contact.
@ Grim - I forgot to mention. Suspicion of government takes a different look in northern New England. We have long been comfortable with having government but traditionally have been very willing to throw people out if they aren't performing. We also expect it to be cheap and honest, and have a good record of low corruption rates. Alas, this is much less the case now, as the names Ted Kennedy, Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, and Patrick Leahy might come to mind. But when I was a boy the immovable members of congress were mostly southern and it didn't take a scandal for us to replace someone who we felt had gone native in DC. The north and the south may increasingly be moving to "worst of both worlds."
Yes, one of the things I like about this model is that it distinguishes the Appalachians from the Deep South. The Deep South is characterized by entrenched political dynasties, especially the Bourbon Democrats of before, during, and again after the Civil War; but it's still true in much of the South.
Appalachia is characterized by things like the 1946 "Battle of Athens."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Athens_%281946%29
Still, even West Virginia produced Robert Byrd, so I suppose corruption is long endemic to the Federal level.
What's interesting about this model as a description is that it shows that America has somehow managed to incorporate a genuine ethical diversity for a long time. Prescriptively, however, it has little to offer -- it suggests that nothing has really changed the basic ethics of the people in these regions, not the New Deal, not the World Wars, not the Cold War, nothing. If that's right, prescriptions become useless; if those challenges didn't forge or shape things anew, neither probably will our current challenges.
Meh. It's a "just so story" when stretched to fit current events.
The "percentage of population vaccinated" is too blunt, as it does not take into consideration the different demographic profiles of each state. For example, "Yankeedom" is much older than "Deep South," thus a larger proportion of the population is vaccinated.
This map shows the different median ages: https://www.caliper.com/featured-maps/maptitude-state-age-map.html
I was born in Missouri, raised there, and have lived in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, back to Missouri, and up to North Dakota. From there to Oregon, then across the river into Washington. Where would I fit, and what would my color code be???
I've been noticing the impressive vaccination rates in the Rio Grande Valley since the beginning, and wondering about them. The Valley isn't exactly known for its excellent medical care or impressive governance, but it's done a good job on this one, compared to the rest of Texas.
My elderly county, however, is at about 70%. We're just inside that Valley band.
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