Does Age, Masculinity and Vaccine Conspiracy Beliefs Impact Covid-19 Vaccination Status?

The Covid-19 pandemic has negatively impacted numerous aspects of daily life. The CDC states that one of the best ways to combat the virus to end the pandemic is high vaccination rates. However, despite this knowledge numerous US citizens remain vaccine hesitant resulting in lower vaccination rates across the country. Two possible variables that may explain the gap in vaccination rates is the adherence to traditional gender norms and vaccine conspiracy beliefs. To measure the effects of both these variables on vaccination rates two survey scales were used: The Male Role Norm - Revised Scale, (Brannon & Junni, 1984) and the Vaccine Conspiracy Beliefs Scale (Shapiro et al., 2016). The results did not show a significant relationship between males’ levels of masculinity and their likelihood of being vaccinated. However, the results did show that women with lower scores of masculinity had increased voluntary vaccination rates. Further, the results demonstrated that both older individuals (50-60 years old) with higher levels of masculinity as well as those with high vaccine conspiracy beliefs had significantly lower odds of being vaccinated. Future research should investigate masculinity levels using more modern scales of masculinity and see if they are better predictors of vaccination status. Moreover, it is important to investigate effective methods to deter the spread of vaccine conspiracy theories, as well as identify ways to decrease a person\u27s belief in the validity of vaccine conspiracy theories

The Emigrant\u27s Experience: Max Corvo, Fascism and World War II

Biagio “Max” Corvo immigrated to the United States in 1929 at just ten years old with his mother and sister. As an anti-fascist activist, his father had previously fled Sicily to the United States. The Corvo family settled in Middletown, CT where there was a burgeoning community of other immigrants from their hometown of Melilli, Sicily. When the U.S. entered WWII after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, many military age men volunteered or were drafted into the fight for their country. Relatively little attention has been hitherto paid to Italian Americans who contributed to the U.S. war effort and, in particular, to the military officers who helped turn the tide against the Axis powers. Max Corvo was one of these officers who made a difference in the struggle. He was a leading figure in the nascent intelligence movement (the OSS, a precursor of the CIA) and helped build the antifascist resistant in his native Sicily in preparation for the U.S. military landing there. Our research is based on the Max Corvo Archive (in the Watkinson Library, Trinity College). Besides learning about Corvo\u27s remarkable life and also about the early days of the American intelligence community, we seek to understand what Corvo\u27s journey and life story tells us about Italian Americans and their attitudes towards Italy during WWII, Italian nationalism both internal and external to the peninsula, as well as their motivations for fighting for the Allies in the war. Our study relies on primary archival sources, but also on the histories written about WWII in Italy and in particular about Sicily