COVID Vaccine Refusers Have 72 Percent Higher Risk of a Serious Traffic Crash, Study Shows

People who refused to get the COVID vaccine are far more likely to get into a traffic crash requiring hospitalization, a recently published study found, adding evidence to the theory that anti-vaxxers often demonstrate other kinds of dangerous antisocial behavior. “We theorized that individual adults who tend to resist public health recommendations might also neglect basic road safety guidelines,” the authors stated.

The study, published in the American Journal of Medicine, looked at data from more than 11.2 million people in Ontario, Canada and data from 178 medical centers in the province. Of the 11.2 million people, 84 percent had received a COVID vaccine and 16 percent had not as of July 31, 2021. Of that same group, 6,682 people needed emergency care for a serious vehicle crash during the one-month period researchers looked at, or 200 per day. Of those traffic crash victims, 75 percent had gotten the jab and 25 percent had not, or an increased risk of 72 percent for the unvaccinated relative to the jabbed.

To put this in perspective, the researchers noted this increased risk of traffic crashes is in line with having sleep apnea and “exceeds the safety gains from modern automobile engineering advances.” The study further notes that these results are consistent across all kinds of demographic groups, income levels, age, sex, and home location, and medical diagnosis, among other factors.

Traffic deaths surged in the United States during the pandemic, but Canada, like nearly all comparable countries, saw the opposite, the extension of a long-term trend of fewer road fatalities. In Bloomberg, transportation writer David Zipper theorized one of the many reasons—although probably not the most significant one—is that Canadian drivers are generally less aggressive and law-abiding. According to the most recently available data, Ontario has a six percent higher vaccination rate than the U.S. population as a whole. 

The researchers are careful to note the study shows no causal link between vaccine hesitancy and risky driving, but that the results may relate to “a distrust of government or belief in freedom that contributes to both vaccination preferences and increased traffic risks.” Other explanations, the researchers said, might be “misconceptions of everyday risks, faith in natural protection, antipathy toward regulation, chronic poverty, exposure to misinformation, insufficient resources, or other personal beliefs.”