According to one study, skipping a shot is an indicator of other risky conduct, including driving while intoxicated.
Those who choose not to receive a COVID immunization may have to pay for it when their insurance renews, according to a new study that indicated unvaccinated drivers were more than 70% more likely to be involved in a serious vehicle accident than the average driver. So, does this suggest that the inoculated, after all, benefit from 5G superpowers? No, argue the study's authors; this is just one example of people engaging in a variety of risky conduct.
The study, published earlier this month in The American Journal of Medicine (h/t Fortune), examined accident data and vaccination status of more than 11 million drivers in Ontario, Canada, beginning in 2021. During the study period, 6,682 people were hospitalized after being involved in severe crashes; 75% (5,000) of them were unvaccinated. When compared to other known conditions, the size of the projected risk (72%) was comparable to the increase associated with sleep apnea, less than the increase associated with alcohol usage, and more than the increase associated with diabetes.
"Our findings do not investigate potential explanations of vaccine hesitation or unsafe driving," the researchers wrote. "One theory is that people have a skepticism of the government or confidence in freedom, which influences both vaccine preferences and increased transportation dangers. Misconceptions about ordinary risks, faith in natural protection, animosity toward regulation, chronic poverty, exposure to misinformation, lack of resources, or other personal views could all be explanations. Alternative reasons could include political identification, poor prior experiences, a lack of health literacy, or social networks that cause doubts about public health norms. More study is needed to address these subjective unknowns."
In other words, skipping a vaccination does not make you more likely to crash your car; it simply means you are more likely to be the type of person who would have crashed it anyway, which is why your auto insurance company may be interested in your vaccination status, especially if you have other things going against you, such as a ticket history, points, or other factors such as poor credit. Being expensive to insure does not necessarily imply that a vehicle is inherently risky; it often has just as much (if not more) to do with the type of driver that vehicle generally attracts. Every data point is important in actuarial science.
According to the authors, the investigation disproves several other generally held beliefs. For starters, it demonstrates that poor people are disproportionately involved in crashes, counter to beliefs that traffic safety is unrelated to health disparities. Even more importantly, it defies assumptions that social isolation would result in less catastrophic driving mishaps, correlating with previous reports of increased highway deaths since the pandemic's inception.
But consider this: What if, instead of drivers getting worse during COVID, risk-takers were significantly more likely to be on the roads in the first place?
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