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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: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday July 20 2021, @02:26PM (17 children)
Like what? Anything remotely substantial? Or remotely statistically realistic?
That's like Trump always resorting to "People say . . .".
Who? What people?
Followed by a lot of handwaving about censorship, authoritarianism and propaganda. You don't provide any examples of substance. A lot of talk about digital lynch mobs. Yet you provide nothing of substance about vaccines. Just a lot of FUD. Nothing remotely substantial. Nothing like, for example, a large portion of vaccinated people die of spontaneous human combustian when in the presence of 5G!
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 1, Troll) by Socrastotle on Tuesday July 20 2021, @06:38PM (13 children)
The risk of anything plays a primary factor in how it should be handled. You probably know at least that COVID affects different groups of people in different ways, but I think most people don't have any idea of just how big this effect is. This [cdc.gov] table sums things up in a pretty straight forward way, and also provides a comparison. Last year was a year with no vaccines and rampant disregard for mitigation measures fewer than 10,000 people under the age of 45 died of COVID. By contrast there were about 230,000 deaths in the same age group caused by other things.
And a "COVID death" is defined as any death where COVID was noted on the death certificate. So a 400lb diabetic who dies of heart failure and has COVID, is marked as a COVID death. You can see the data on comorbidities from the CDC here [cdc.gov]. Of those 10,000 deaths attributed to COVID, about 20% of the people had diabetes, another 10% had cancer, and so on. The risk posed by COVID for a healthy adult, especially one under the age of 50, is *exceptionally* low.
Presumably you're aware of the mounting number of verified side effects of the vaccines including autoimmune disease (Guillain-Barré Syndrome), heart inflammation, and blood clots. These side effects do not discriminate in nearly the same way as COVID does with regards to age, and they do kill. And in the fine print on the paper you sign prior to vaccination, you waive your right to sue for damages if you do end up being hurt by the vaccines. And now the tide is shifting to booster shots. On top of this the big pharma companies are already busy cooking up a new custom shot designed to offer improved protection against the Indian variant. And as this virus will likely remain with us for at least another year or two - you're ultimately looking at not only shots, but shots for your shots and entirely new shots altogether.
To frame the decision to vaccinate as obvious for a young and healthy individuals is simply ridiculous.
---
And of course then an issue that's just icing on top of all of this is trust. If one were to list the entities and individuals they trust on an ethical level, or ones where the benefit of society over self interest prevails - where do you think big pharma and politicians would rank? And we're in a pandemic where literally trillions of dollars are passing hands and billionaires are being made as stocks skyrocket thousands of percents on vaccine profits - these are the sort of temptations that can test the integrity of good people. And we're talking about politicians and big pharma...
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday July 21 2021, @08:51PM (12 children)
There are side effects to any vaccine. Even sometimes severe ones. Usually in incredibly small numbers. An individual risk that is far lower than the risk of what is being vaccinated against.
Even something as simple as aspirin has risks. But do they affect the vast majority.
As for trust, sure I understand that a lot of money was going to change hands for vaccine mass production. I didn't have a problem with that, so much, as long as it actually works.
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 1, Troll) by Socrastotle on Thursday July 22 2021, @05:06AM (10 children)
Except in this case the risks are not small. The vaccines have so far had causally confirmed deaths in the hundreds, and not yet causally confirmed cases that are now at 11,000. For the group where COVID kills at a fair rate, this is not a major factor. For the vast majority of people, this is.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday July 22 2021, @02:20PM (9 children)
Those numbers you cite ARE small. Statistically speaking.
On the other hand we have 610,000 covid deaths over 34 million cases. (from googling just a moment ago)
Many covid cases will result in life long consequences form destroyed lung tissue. It's not just like getting the flu, despite what the once great deer leader and venison overlord may have said.
At present we have over 186 million people who have received first vaccine dose in the US. (population about 382 million) Of those, 161 million are fully vaccinated. Now 11,000 is tiny numbers for someone with tiny hands.
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 3, Informative) by DannyB on Thursday July 22 2021, @02:25PM (8 children)
By my calculation your 11,000 is 0.0059 percent. Or 0.000059.
From googling, odds of getting struck by lightning are 1 in 300,000. Or 0.00000333. So yes, the chances of bad outcome from vaccine are higher than getting struck by lightning. But not what most people would call dangerous.
So please continue trying to spin 'real concern' about vaccine safety.
It is pure politics. Nothing more. The map of state vaccination rates vs politics is the best picture of this.
If people have become 'concerned' it is because they have been fed a diet of lies from their news sources.
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 2) by Socrastotle on Thursday July 22 2021, @03:52PM (7 children)
Again, do you not understand the most basic component here? Risk, in a vacuum, is irrelevant. All that matters is risk:reward. Climbing Mt. Everest is definitely on my bucket list. And for about 1% of folks, that's a one way trip. But because it's something that I would personally value and enjoy, I believe that is a very good risk:reward ratio. Does that mean I'd be willing to engage in other activities with a 1% risk of mortality on a whim? No, it would depend on what I get out of the activity. So my risk:reward for the vaccination stuff here is: Last year, terrible mitigation measures taken, mass gatherings, only ~10% people infected. I engage in much better than average precautions. My chances of being infected? Probably somewhere in the ballpark of 0.1%, if not lower.
Odds of a bad outcome if I do get it? Excellent health, relatively young. From the CDC data last year, fewer than 10,000 people under 45 died of COVID and a huge chunk of the deaths involved people in extremely poor health including large frequencies of cancer, diabetes, obesity, etc. And we also know that at least tens of millions of people in this group were infected and probably vastly more since most people with COVID experience no symptoms = no diagnosis. For instance way back in April of last year, random tests in New York showed an overall 13.9% infection rate, including 21.2% in NYC. Today, more than a year later, their official overall infected percent is 11.2%, so obviously there is huge undercounting. So my exact odds? Impossible to really determine but something like 99.999% is reasonable.
Combine those together and my chances of facing a bad outcome are headed into the 1 in a millions territory, comparable if not better than my chances of a bad outcome from the vaccine. And so I'm opting into something that I see negligible benefit from, who continues to see ever new side effects, is providing ever lower reported protection against variants, that you will undoubtedly need ever more boosters and derivatives of, and doesn't even really provide any degree of comfort. Fewer than 60 democrats, most if not all fully vaccinated, travel to DC. They act like idiots including flying and bussing with no masks or distancing. Now 10% of them have COVID. What an amazing vaccine.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday July 22 2021, @07:42PM (2 children)
When I sent home for lunch today, I saw a clip on TV with a doctor from Florida. She was describing young people getting the Delta variant. Coming to the hospital. The last thing they would say before they were being intubated was begging for a vaccine. She could only say "it is too late for the vaccine".
The vaccine risk, while real, is vanishingly small compared to the bad outcome of the disease.
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 2) by Socrastotle on Thursday July 22 2021, @08:19PM (1 child)
And don't you begin to wonder whether you're watching propaganda at about that point? This is not to say that what you said is at all fake, propaganda often is true. But it'd be the equivalent of a story focused on and exploiting emotion using the story of Jacob Clynick, an otherwise perfectly healthy 13 year old who got the vaccination, went to sleep, and never woke up. And that's an age group that has had COVID deaths approaching statistical zero. And indeed you can find that sort of stuff on plenty of trash media sites as well. I assure you I hold "both sides" in near equal contempt.
Obviously when you speak of death on any scale, let alone with thousands - you can find plentiful unpleasant stories. This is why I think it's critical to never let yourself be driven by emotion and why I also never resort to such. Because my goal obviously isn't to convince you. I'm not going to change my mind, and neither are you. My goal is to express myself and my logic as clearly as I can. And since you clearly strongly disagree with me, I know you're going to be motivated to prove me wrong. And perhaps you can! It's entirely possible I've made some logical error, or perhaps missed some data, or engaged in some other sort of objective mistake.
And at the same time, perhaps I've introduced you to some similarly objective data you were not aware of. This is not necessarily with the goal of making you change your opinion, but simply furthering the view that knowledge is power. If every American today was aware of all of the facts and data on COVID, I think we would be living in a far more rational time, which again is not some delusional euphemism for 'everybody would agree with me'; I expect many would not. But rather that when people are being driven by fear or other emotions, let alone with media and politicians actively seeking to exploit it, it just leads a society that's acting like a chicken with its head cut off. And that's no good for anybody. Because in the end the vast majority of us all want the same thing - to get passed this little thing and get back to normal life, ideally with as little permanent damage as possible to both the people of this world and to the values that we ought hold true to.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 23 2021, @03:31AM
nice hyperbole, considered a job writing for hannity?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday July 22 2021, @08:09PM (3 children)
‘It’s too late’: US doctor says dying patients begging for Covid vaccine [theguardian.com]
At least 99% of those in US who died of Covid in the last six months had not been vaccinated, says CDC director Dr Rochelle Walensky
‘It’s too late’: Doctor forced to turn down COVID patients begging for vaccine [nypost.com]
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 2) by Socrastotle on Friday July 23 2021, @04:43PM (2 children)
The articles I find quite interesting are things such as Pfizer shot only 39% effective against delta infection [forbes.com]. This shouldn't really come as a surprise, but to most Americans who of "faith" (and I am not speaking of the Beyond), it would - because we continue to put out an incredibly misleading narrative around the vaccines.
And just as importantly, this emphasizes that there is no grand social benefit to vaccination. It's becoming increasingly clear that these vaccines are simply ineffective at preventing the spread of COVID, so all vaccinating does is help to reduce your own personal chances of facing a severe outcome if you do get it. That said, an increasingly large number of people who are double vaccinated are dying. In places such as England, they have now become the majority. The reason for this is that the elderly are those primarily dying and they have a high vaccination rate, but it's emphasizing that the US narrative, with no data provided, claiming 99% of deaths are among the unvaccinated is likely, at best, cherry picked. And, at worst, simply a lie. In either case, I expect we will also see some "updates" to this narrative as well. And finally this is all happening at the nearly the exact same time that a heavily publicized and totally-honestly-completely-impartial study [nejm.org] claimed that Pfizer is 88% effective against the Indian/delta variant.
If you want to believe that there is no intent to mislead people, then you must instead accept gross incompetence. In neither case it encourage a desire to participate in this experiment.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 23 2021, @08:07PM
Have you ever considered the possibility that the "gross incompetence" you speak of is within you?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 24 2021, @09:24AM
The Israel study, as even your own article points out, is very suspect. But even 39 percent results in a fairly large reduction in the effective reproduction, would drastically cut the overall amount of total cases, and drastically reduce the chances of reaching a critical MCE.
(Score: 2) by Socrastotle on Thursday July 22 2021, @10:19AM
And out of curiosity, do you have even a single response to the actual data and figures? Or is this just "the world isn't how DannyB wants it to be, so DannyB will ignore the world and insert his own reality"?
You ask for data, you get it, you ignore it. You are typical.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 21 2021, @01:02PM (2 children)
And not that I expect you to ever learn, but you don't find it interesting how you beg for further elaboration, pretending such is impossible - and then continue to behave in the exact same way when faced with such?
It is cognitive dissonance. [wikipedia.org] You know what I'm saying is accurate, but it runs contrary to what you want to believe to be true, so you are left rationalizing 2+2=5 in your mind, and it frustrates you. You will likely block it out and be back to repeating the same nonsense as you always do tomorrow. And "you" are an embodiment of the American masses, and precisely the sort of future and people Sagan warned of.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday July 21 2021, @08:48PM (1 child)
I'll point once again at how the concerns about vaccination are highly politically aligned. So I'll throw your 'rationalizing' right back at you.
I asked for further elaboration about the alleged 'concerns'. Concerns I am suspicious of. Why wouldn't everyone have these concerns if they were so real?
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 2) by Socrastotle on Friday July 23 2021, @07:50PM
I didn't notice this post before, and I think it's interesting. Especially "Why wouldn't everyone have these concerns if they were so real?" And I think it can be simply answered with more questions. Why did people think cigarettes were safe? Why did people think mixing up lead into fuel and then breathing in those exhaust fumes was safe? Why did people think DDT was safe? The answer is always the same. Most people do not really think for themselves, instead simply accepting what people in power tell them. This trust has been consistently abused in the past, especially when substantial amounts of money are at stake. And the centralization of the internet has opened up the potential for abuse like never before.
The "Wuhan lab" narrative is the most obvious example of this. One day it's an outrageous conspiracy theory that no rational person should believe, and in fact people were vigorously attacked and censored for even suggesting it. The media ran countless stories claiming that not only was the entire idea completely debunked, but that it was literally impossible. And so only an idiot would ever believe such a thing. The next day? With no silver bullet or anything of the sort ever found, the entire narrative took a 180. Suddenly it was open for discussion everywhere, Jon Stewart was calling the leak blindingly obvious on the corporate media, and the media in general is slowly pushing towards it becoming now the only theory that any rational person should believe. All because some politicians found adopting that narrative to be more beneficial to their geopolitical interests.
This is part of the reason that I think our democracy is likely to go the exact same way as Athenian democracy. The masses are far easier to exploit than to educate, and this is becoming more true than ever before in the age of the internet. How can democracy persist under these conditions?