GOP Moves Anti-Vaxx
Terry H. Schwadron
July 16, 2021
Just when we thought coronavirus was ending as a threat in the United States, it apparently is back in mutant form and aimed directly at those who resisted the vaccines.
As everyone has noticed, the growth rate for disease spread is highest in states where Republican governors are listening harder to political calls for individual liberty than any responsibility for public health. And so, they continue to enact or decree orders to ignore, slow or actually halt vaccine deliveries as representing overreach by any government, not just one headed by Democrat Joe Biden.
· In Tennessee, angry Republican legislators had the state vaccine manager fired after she reminded local medical staffers that under Tennessee law, teens can be vaccinated without parental dissent. Indeed, the legislature there is throwing out all teen vaccine outreach well beyond Covid, into all diseases.
· Newsmax, the conservative news outlet, had to retract anti-vaxx messages delivered by one of its own TV hosts, who had argued that vaccines were “against nature.”
· Over the weekend, attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference cheered talk of a lower-than-expected vaccination rate.
· States, including Florida and Texas, are pushing laws that would “ban” private businesses from asking to see proof of vaccination status, and Republicans and right-leaning media jumped on Biden for suggesting sending volunteers door-to-door into low-vaccination communities to let people know how and where they could get vaccinated as “government thugs.”
The examples abound. It is not just a personal decline to take the vaccine, but a nationwide Republican talking point with lawsuits, rallies, public denunciations of all sort.
The renewed wave of mutant coronavirus without vaccines once again threatens the start of school in the fall, and the return to the workplace. If you don’t know that everyone is vaccinated, you just might be tempted to stay home yourself.
Who Is Being Hurt?
At the end of the day, though, you have to wonder who’s being hurt here? My family is vaccinated and we enjoyed getting together again after the prolonged interruption. It is the body of self-described Republican followers who are getting sick and filling rural hospital emergency facilities.
Set aside the obvious medical question and ask: How is this good politics?
Axios, quoting a recent Gallup Poll, talks of a massive trust gap in the country, with negative feelings towards our institutions rampant among Republicans. Gallup polling finds a 45-point split between Republicans and Democrats in trust of police — no surprise there — but also in church or organized religion and public schools. At the bottom of the trust meter: Congress, TV news, big business, the criminal justice system and newspapers.
They didn’t ask about vaccines, but those bottom dwellers are associated with vaccination programs.
So, it is unsurprising that growing GOP resistance to Covid vaccines is raising alarms among public health experts.
With a steady drumbeat of concerns about the safety or appropriateness of vaccines from conservative media hosts and lawmakers alike, over 30 percent of U.S. adults remain unvaccinated, with higher percentages in Republican-leaning states, leaving places with lower vaccination rates at risk of localized surges of the virus. Over 99 percent of the people now dying from the virus are unvaccinated, experts say.
Yes, there have been some reports of other illnesses that appear to correlate with Johnson & Johnson vaccines, but with hundreds of millions of doses, the vaccines have been found to be remarkably safe and effective.
Speaking Up
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., says he is suing the government to stop vaccine promotion. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., warned his followers at a public event against taking the vaccines. Rep. Lauren Boebert, Rp-Colo., tweeted that an army led by Dr. Anthony Fauci would be knocking on doors to “push the experimental COVID vaccine.”
Donald Trump has said that people should get the vaccine, but he took his own shot privately, and has not made it a priority by taking steps such as appearing in public service announcements.
Some Republicans are promoting vaccinations, but it is not the main statement we are hearing.
The vaccines were developed during the Trump administration, which has received credit for its Operation Warp Speed program.
What still pends is any decision for private employers to mandate vaccines for their workers. Such an order could follow a decision by the Food and Drug Administration to grant full approval on the vaccines in place of the current emergency use approvals.
Still, we have to wonder at the efficacy of conservative leaders failing to promote the health of their followers.
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