'Distrust of government' is bad for you, claims study funded by government

A new study claims that it is unhealthy to distrust your government, but as it turns out, these studies themselves are funded by several federal and federally-funded Canadian agencies.

The study, published by the American Journal of Medicine "but authored by a trio in Canada," outlines how Covid vaccine hesitancy correlates with an increased risk of being in a traffic accident.



The study was conducted by Canadian researchers, who looked at encrypted government-held data of 11 million adults, with 16 percent of them not having received the Covid vaccine.

One group, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, is a federal agency responsible for funding health and medical research in Canada and is comprised of 13 institutes.

Another group, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), is Canada's federal funding agency for university-based research and student training.

The study claims that the unvaccinated are more likely to crash their cars than those with sleep apnea, though not as likely as those who abuse alcohol.

They write that the excess risk by unvaccinated drivers "exceeds the safety gains from modern automobile engineering advances and also imposes risks on other road users."

They theorize that it's nothing to do with the actual vaccine itself, but rather that it's the character of the unvaccinated, meaning that people who resist vaccines may also "neglect basic road safety guidelines."

"One possibility relates to a distrust of government or belief in freedom that contributes to both vaccination preferences and increased traffic risks," the study authors wrote.

Dr. John Campell, a doctor that has tracked Covid since the virus first broke out, said that he assumed the study was a joke.

"When I actually looked into it, this is actually based on something that's purported to be a scientific paper," said Campbell.

Campbell added that the paper says it's a correlation and not causal, but that the study puts forward a diagram that shows potential causes, and that the paper attempts to put forward potential causal mechanisms.

"It's a population study," said Campbell, "quite how they got the data, I don't know. You and I can't get access to the data, it's not public domain data, but they gave reasons why it's good data and they attest to the validity of this data." 

Campbell said that there were "a few things to look at," including that, at the time that this study was done in 2021, many unvaccinated Canadians were barred from being able to fly or take the train, forcing them to drive long distances to see friends or family.

"The vaccinated were more likely to work remotely, so people who were unvaccinated were more likely to have to travel into work," said Campbell, linking to evidence.

"For example, over 65s had a very low accident rate, but of course, they don't commute to work. It turns out that this data, looking at over 6,000 accidents, includes drivers, passengers, and pedestrians. Are they seriously trying to make the point that Covid vaccination protects pedestrians against road traffic accidents? It really is a bit bizarre," said Campbell, who said that there were "nearly as many pedestrians in this study as there were drivers, as well as passengers," Campbell said.