SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Hemmingway Destroys Dem Narrative on Vaccines: 61% of Vaccine Hesitant People are NOT Republicans
Steve Straub By Steve Straub
Published July 19, 2021 at 6:04amDemocrats and their media allies like to claim that the vast majority of vaccine hesitant people are Republicans who get bad information from Fox News or Facebook.
The truth is the exact opposite as Mollie Hemmingway explains to Maura Liasson:
Rather than editorialize further, here’s the transcript of this exchange, it stands by itself:
LIASSON: “Well, you know, what we’ve heard from public health officials who has studied the way to communicate about the vaccine is that people need to hear from medical experts and get their questions answered.
In other words, the vaccine problem is not going to be solved by people calling Fauci a hack or people calling right-wing talk show hosts some kind of — I don’t know what they were calling them, but attacking them for raising questions about the vaccine.
You have to go to people where they are. What I also think is interesting about this whole controversy, it’s a big debate happening without Donald Trump. Donald Trump is proud of what he did to get the vaccines online fast.
A lot of his supporters don’t want to take them. He’s had the vaccine. He’s talked in favor of it. So I think this is kind of interesting. This is a big polarized debate and a it’s missing an element that has been present in almost every polarized debate in the last five years.”
HEMINGWAY: “If I can just point — just really quickly, this is one of the examples that you see, people make it out like it’s the Republicans that don’t want to take the vaccine. In fact, 61% of the people who are hesitant about the vaccines are not Republican. And the more the media make it out that it’s something that’s partisan, that will also going to contribute to the problems.
The more that they fail to remind people that it was President Biden and Vice President Harris, when they were running for office, who said that they didn’t have trust in the vaccine, that also makes people not trust what the media are saying.
So I think we need to be very careful and not have forgetfulness about what was happening during the campaign when the vaccine messaging was very different.”
Mollie Hemmingway really nailed that.
I agree with Mollie Hemmingway that the Biden / Harris team made a major contribution to vaccine hesitancy during the campaign by putting it down if it resulted from a Trump effort.
The administration also continues to contribute via their constant flip-flops, lack of consistency on the benefits of being vaccinated and lately, constant talk of being okay with local mandates.
After all, what ever happened to “my body, my choice?”
The Biden administration would be wise to look inward in trying to figure out why so many are hesitant to take the vaccine instead of blaming Fox News, Facebook and others.
Sadly, we all know by now that the likelihood of that happening is almost zero.
https://thefederalistpapers.org/us/hemmingway-destroys-dem-narrative-vaccines-61-vaccine-hesitant-people-not-republicans
further reading:
https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/americas-vaccine-hesitant-demographics/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-vaccine-hesitancy-presidential-encouragement/
https://www.aei.org/op-eds/if-biden-wants-to-convince-the-vaccine-hesitant-give-trump-credit-for-the-vaccines/
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/democrats-have-become-the-party-of-anti-vaxxers
https://www.wfae.org/politics/2021-04-17/are-covid-19-vaccination-rates-as-simple-as-republicans-vs-democrats
The AP story notes that polls have shown Republicans to be more vaccine-hesitant than Democrats. It doesn’t mention that some African Americans are wary about being vaccinated, although recent polls show vaccine hesitancy is declining among Black Americans.
The five worst-performing states per the AP analysis are also some of the states with the highest percentage of Black residents. Mississippi is the worst-performing state in terms of vaccine performance; it also has the highest percentage of African American residents. Louisiana has the second-highest percentage of Black residents, and it’s in the bottom five in terms of vaccine performance.
And New Hampshire? It’s one of the whitest states in the Union, where less than 1% of residents are Black.
That is not to say that African Americans are the main reason some states are lagging in vaccines. But it could be a factor.
Louisiana residents could be grouped two ways: Black Democrats and white conservatives. There is no significant constituency of white Democrats – the group that’s most enthusiastic about getting jabbed.
If you buy into simplistic CNN and Democrat explanations for vax hesitancy, you are a fool.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 19 2021, @11:51PM
Kamala Harris did express vaccine skepticism during the campaign. That much is true. But there were already concerns about whether African-Americans would choose to be vaccinated, given prior distrust of the government. You haven't made the case that Harris' statements had much of an impact on the general distrust among African-Americans.
It should also be noted that Donald Trump has been very hushed about getting vaccinated and about encouraging people to get vaccinated. For example, back in March, all of the living former US presidents except Trump appeared in an ad promoting vaccination (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/03/15/all-living-ex-presidents-except-trump-appear-ad-touting-vaccine/4702007001/ [usatoday.com]). While all the other former presidents are actively encouraging people to get vaccinated, Trump is saying very little. If Trump is really so proud of his efforts, why isn't he being at least as vocal as all the other former presidents in promoting COVID-19 vaccines? Please do tell.
Comparing Republican vaccine refusal with African-American distrust of vaccines is apples and oranges. African-American distrust is rooted in a very real history of racism in medical care and research. Past events like the Tuskegee experiment were very real, unlike the nonsense conspiracy theories that many Republicans actively promote. The history of racism in medical care and research absolutely happened, whereas it's also very clear that vaccines aren't causing autism, don't contain microchips, aren't sterilizing people, aren't killing people, or any number of other rubbish conspiracy theories that Republicans are circulating.
Again, Harris did make a few statements of skepticism about COVID-19 vaccines during the campaign. On the other hand, right wingers have been continuously spreading misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines and spreading lies. Moreover, it is Republican state legislatures that are actively passing laws to ban vaccine passports, outlaw businesses from asking about people's vaccination status, and generating enacting policies to protect anti-vaxxers.
Ron DeSantis decreed by executive order that Florida businesses cannot inquire about a person's vaccination status or deny service on that basis. Let's ignore the fact that the executive order is illegal and an abuse of power. Where have any Democrat Governors done anything like that? I'd ask you to cite examples, but there are none. It's Republicans catering to anti-vaxxers, not Democrats.
Because of his age and health conditions, my dad is at serious risk of dying if he were to develop COVID-19. But he refuses to be vaccinated because he's been brainwashed by the anti-vaxxer propaganda circulated by right wingers. I have to worry if I'm going to lose my dad because of anti-vaxxer lies, and that's a terrible injustice. The latest round of bullshit circulating seems to be that the spike proteins produced during vaccination are highly toxic, therefore you shouldn't be vaccinated. Of course, this ignores the obvious fact that SARS-CoV-2 also causes production of spike proteins, yet the right is happy to pretend that SARS-CoV-2 is no big deal. The only time when the right wing seems to think SARS-CoV-2 is serious is when they can score political points by interrogating people like Tony Fauci over funding for gain-of-function research. But people like my dad are brainwashed by this propaganda, putting his life at great risk.
Don't you dare equate Harris' statements during the campaign to the massive amount of anti-vaxxer propaganda being circulated by right wingers and the Republican elected officials pandering to anti-vaxxers.