Republican mistrust in healthcare widens US health gap, study finds

Republicans increasingly avoid doctors and vaccines, widening health gaps with Democrats, researchers say

Growing Republican mistrust in the healthcare system has widened health disparities between liberals and conservatives, who are more likely to avoid vaccines and the medical system in general, according to a new study.

Neil O'Brian, a political science professor at the University of Carolina, Chapel Hill and one of the authors of the study published in Nature Human Behaviour, said that his team saw two phases to the phenomenon.