How did a pandemic hit a hard political divide?
My wife has a childhood friend in north Texas who is more than a little bit distressed because her two daughters and one son-in-law are refusing to get vaccinated for COVID-19. Even more troubling to my wife’s friend, there are grandchildren involved who are also susceptible to the SARS virus. Even more troubling, all three work in the healthcare field, in one way or another. One of the three is an RN.
Without even bothering to ask, I would bet money on how they vote -- Republican. I ask myself, how did a public-health crisis become politicized? There are COVID vaccines available, for free, but there are millions still refusing to take it?
A Gallup poll released two months ago shows that for the first time, a majority of Republicans have received at least one jab of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine — 56 percent. So, there is, however, a little bit of good news.
According to a report by the Brookings Institute dated Oct. 1, 2021, when it comes to the COVID vaccination and who gets the jab, political party affiliation matters more than race and ethnicity.
In comparison, with regard to the COVID vaccination rate and the 56 percent of Republicans who have now gotten vaccinated, 92 percent of Democrats are already vaccinated. The independent voters are caught somewhere in between – 68 percent. (Source: Kaiser Family Foundation.)
A Gallup survey released Sept. 29, showed that 72 percent of adults in the U.S. 18 and older had been vaccinated — 71 percent of white Americans, 70 percent of Blacks, and 73 percent of Hispanics.
Data from an Oct. 1 Gallup survey showed that 40 percent of Republicans don’t plan to get vaccinated versus 26 percent of independents and just 3 percent of Democrats.
Trying to understand the illogical mind set that seems so rampant among Republicans, I did an online search for “Why so many Republicans won't get vaccinated.” I don’t understand it, and although I may not be the smartest guy in the room like Aaron Rodgers, to me, getting the COVID vaccine makes all the sense in the world. Not getting it makes no sense.
When I did that online search (Nov. 16), one of the first stories that popped up comes courtesy of the NY Times. Like the newspaper or not, it does run some decent stories. The paper published one dated Sept. 12, 2021, with this headline: “How Republican Vaccine Opposition Got to This Point.”
Good, because I want to know. How and why has a public-health crisis, which has so far killed approximately 763,000 Americans and infected more than 47 million, become politicized?
I mean, it’s not like we’re talking about illegal immigration. A political argument about that, I can understand; but an infectious virus that can kill and maim people? How can that possibly be up for political discussion when the data is clear: people are dying; and some of those who don’t die, carry with them long-lasting nasty side effects post infection.
On top of that, data released daily by Hidalgo County shows that approximately 90 percent of those dying every day of the week are unvaccinated.
Here’s what the NY Times story says, in a nutshell, starting with the lead paragraph: “After Sherri Tenpenny, a Cleveland-area doctor, falsely suggested during a hearing last month in the Ohio House of Representatives that Covid vaccines left people ‘magnetized’ and could ‘interface’ with 5G cellular towers, Republican lawmakers thanked her for her ‘enlightening’ testimony.”
If the quack doc’s testimony is considered “enlightened,” then why not go back to using leeches to cure people of illness as was the case with George Washington’s final days?
“Here. Stick another leech on George’s neck.”
True story. Look it up. At the time, physicians thought that “bleeding” a patient by way of leeches would cure the illness. Based on the vaccine debate, we still seem stuck in the Dark Ages of medicine, at least with regard to some people.
This, from the fourth paragraph of the same NY Times story:
“A wave of opposition to Covid vaccines has risen within the Republican Party, as conservative news outlets produce a steady diet of misinformation about vaccines and some G.O.P. lawmakers invite anti-vaccination conspiracy theorists to testify in statehouses and Congress. With very little resistance from party leaders, these Republican efforts have elevated falsehoods and doubts about vaccinations from the fringes of American life to the center of our political conversation.”
The question, though, is why are so many Republican lawmakers signing on to this utter BS? My opinion: It’s tied to money and getting re-elected, which is really one in the same at the national level. That’s why so many lawmakers in D.C. who have been re-elected multiple times leave office with millions in the bank. They weren’t millionaires when they got elected, but they are when the leave “public office” as “servants of the people.”
Here’s the last bit from the NY Times story without getting into copyright infringement territory, but the subject matter is too important to pass up. I believe this paragraph to be true because it’s the only thing that makes sense. Some Republican lawmakers are putting their own agenda (getting re-elected/making money from special interests) above the matter of public health, and apparently, they don’t care if people are dying because of it. From the Times’ July
17, 2021 story written by Lisa Lerer: “Some conservatives promulgate the falsehoods as a way to rally their political base, embracing ideas like a stolen election, rampant voter fraud and revisionist history about the deadly siege at the Capitol. Many others say very little at all, preferring to dodge questions from the news media.”
There you have it. Why and how the COVID vaccines have become politicized. It’s a way for Republican lawmakers to rally their supporters even if some do die before the next election. They want to rally “their political base” by spreading misinformation.
Sad part is, too many Republicans swallow their BS, hook, line, and sinker, after which, too many take a sad trip to the morgue.