Insurance companies should make changes to policies for Covid-19 unvaccinated people, researchers advise, as a new study published in The American Journal of Medicine claims that unvaccinated individuals are more likely to get in traffic accidents.
The principal investigator for the study, Dr Donald Redelmeier at the Sunnybrook Research Institute, claims his research "demonstrated traffic risks were 50%-70% more frequent for adults who had not been vaccinated compared to those who had," Fox News reports.
The researchers also reportedly advise that "The observed risks might also justify changes to driver insurance policies in the future."
However, explaining the reason behind the statement, Dr Donald is reported to have said, "This does not mean COVID-19 vaccination directly prevents traffic crashes. Instead, it suggests that adults who do not follow public health advice may also neglect the rules of the road."
The study reportedly looked at 6,682 traffic accidents in Ontario, Canada, during 2021 and discovered that the unvaccinated accounted for 1682 crashes or 25% of them, which the researchers claimed was "equal to a 72% increased relative risk compared with those vaccinated."
Researchers propose there could be a link between "distrust of the government, a belief in freedom, misconceptions of everyday risks, faith in natural protection, antipathy toward regulation, chronic poverty, misinformation, exposure to misinformation, insufficient resources and other personal beliefs," to the rise in the risk of traffic accidents.
This declaration by researchers which recently went viral has caused an outrage on Twitter with many medical professionals and scientists weighing in on the controversial study.
Dr Clare Craig, a British diagnostic pathologist wrote in a Twitter thread, “Here is a joke of a study claiming the unvaccinated are involved in more car accidents. There's a lot wrong with it."
She adds, "These claims are based on accidents that resulted in hospitalisation. Each person injured is referred to in the paper as a 'crash' - even when the injured person was a pedestrian!"
Other medical professionals also dismissed the study and termed it absurd.
In fact, Dr Vinay Prasad, a hematologist-oncologist and health researcher, found the conclusions of the study funny. "This also repeats the dumb idea that primary care doctors should specialty counsel unvaccinated people about driving," he tweeted with laughing emojis.
While one user wrote, "I get awfully tired of saying 'these vaccination studies are not telling you helpful things, they are misattributing confounding variables.' So, it's nice that these researchers made my argument for me in this satirical form."
The Canadian study reportedly investigated encrypted government records of more than 11 million adults, with at least 16 per cent of the adults being unvaccinated, Eyewitness News informs.
Commenting on the findings, Discovery Insure CEO Anton Ossip is of the opinion that it all boils down to behavioural science.
He also reportedly said that while Discovery Health cross-checked the data with their own records, the stats were not as high.
"We haven’t seen 72%, we've seen closer to 30%. It differs by age - some were close to 40% in the higher age groups," he states.
Ossip also reportedly said that it was worth considering if those unvaccinated should be charged higher premiums.
He is quoted as saying, "It is an interesting exercise and something worth considering, in terms of whether it’s something that's additive to an existing way of pricing or whether it's in the data already and we certainly will look at that as a factor going forward."
However, despite the data, the researchers have reportedly also warned that being unvaccinated does not automatically mean a driver will be involved in a traffic accident.
