Vaccine Hesitancy
The vaccination effort has improved immensely under the Biden Administration, with the "100-million-shots in the first 100 days of office" goal officially checked off the list this past week. Also billions more dollars are incoming for vaccinations thanks to the Democrats passing of the American Rescue Plan, the country's outlook should be more positive than ever. However, the one major problem still lurking is the issue of vaccine hesitancy among certain communities, particularly among republicans, and Fox News/Tucker Carlson seem to be leading the charge to increase that hesitancy.
Tucker Carlson spent a portion of his Monday show casting doubts about the vaccine, and propping up anti-vaxxer beliefs in his prime-time spot. During his segment he said the following:
"All of this should prompt some pretty tough questions for public health experts in this country, One of those questions is: How effective is this coronavirus vaccine? How necessary is it to take the vaccine? Don't dismiss those questions from anti-vaxxers, don't kick people off social media for asking them. Answer the questions, especially now that the administration would like you to take this vaccine. As Joe Biden told you last week, you can't celebrate the Fourth of July if you don't."
Now, while of course there is no problem with asking questions about this serious of a matter. The problem is that Tucker and his production team spend zero time answering them. They leave them unanswered, giving their views the impression that there are no answers to these, when in fact they are readily available in numerous places. Instead Tucker asks another question, revealing the main point of his segment, "Should this scare you? We don't know, but the rest of us deserve an answer." Again, Tucker is throwing out this question with the clear implication that there may be something to fear here, while ignoring the fact of the matter that there are answers that assuage this fear.
This casting of doubts isn't simply impacting Fox viewers, but also Republican lawmakers, who, by their refusal to get vaccinated, are giving permission to their constituents to do the same. Up to one-quarter of Republican house members have not gotten their vaccines, despite having them available to them since December. Polling data suggests that up to one-third of republicans will not get vaccinated, and the messaging from both Fox and Republican congresspeople are playing a role in keeping that number high.
Thanks for such a thorough post, Clark! This very topic is something I have been pondering and discussing in friend groups. I find it ludicrous that these allegations are not only bought up (even though they're false), but they provide the public with no counter evidence to support their decision not to be vaccinated. It seems as if they are simply against it because Democrats are for it which makes no sense.
ReplyDeleteHerb Porath, March 21, 2021
ReplyDeleteClark,
I agree with you that a substantial number of people in the country are reluctant to receive the Covid vaccine, in fact the last time I saw a figure on that it was approximately one-third of the nation. Now I seriously doubt those people are all republicans or a particular race or educational background, I’d venture to say it’s spread across the entire spectrum of the population. I know people young and old that want to wait and see how everybody else does on the vaccine before committing to it. A lot of the rational they use makes some sense, such as, duration of the studies enabling the Pharma’s to determine the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine was so short, no one knows how any of us will be affected long term. Under normal circumstances the FDC and CDC would require many years of blind studies to determine adverse effects, in the Covid vaccine it was months. A fair question would be, why did supposedly independent organizations such as the FDC and CDC abandon their normal protocols on vaccine development? Because they are under pressure, which equates to funding by the administration and / or Congress to get a vaccine approved, which they did.
Now to answer your second issue with funding and Biden able to obtain "100-million-shots in the first 100 days of office." Even prior to the first stimulus package the Trump administration realizing that no Pharma was going to take on the financial risk of attempting to produce a vaccine in warp speed. Therefore, the Parma’s were given many billions of dollars to mitigate their risk. Not only were the Pharma’s financially assisted, the companies that make the needles, vials, refrigeration equipment, delivery company’s such as FedEx and commercial airlines, all items necessary to administer and deliver the vaccines were subsidized. Therefore, one could say, we the taxpayer paid for the vaccine development. If you remember, in the waning days of the Trump presidency two vaccines were approved and distribution began late last year, and a third vaccine, J & J was in the development stage. Upon approval, the Parma’s began to ramp up production, but you can’t go from a few thousand to a few million overnight. Another was delivery and distribution to every state in our nation and in turn for the states to distribute and have the personnel to administer the vaccine. As you are aware, not only in this state but most states across the nation the logistics at the beginning were a nightmare, it seemed nobody was ready to address the issue. In the state of Georgia, how many doses of vaccine had to be thrown away? By the time President Biden took office most of these issues were under control. Although J & J received approval after Biden took office their efforts began many months earlier. So here comes Biden promising a wider distribution of vaccine and taking credit for saving the country.
At this point I’m going to let you form your own conclusion, which administration deserves the majority of credit for where we are today, Biden or Trump?
I would love to hear your response and supporting rational.
Herb Porath
Great post, Clark. It is disheartening to see so many people disregard science because someone on a “news” entertainment show told them to be afraid.
ReplyDeleteWith the increased mortality rates across different countries due to the impact of Coronavirus, there has been a need for intervention by multiple parties, including researchers in the scientific field, to come up with its vaccines. These are important because of their abilities to activate the immune system without making the individual sick from the underlying virus. From research, it is evident that some viruses can be vaccinated, including Chickenpox, Diphtheria, Measles, and Hepatitis A and B. As such, individuals can get vaccinated against Coronavirus. However, due to the nature and existence of the condition in the present times, there have been multiple suggestions, and implications from getting everyone vaccinated against it. While America's political leadership can be a factor associated with an improvement of the debate concerning vaccinations, both Democrats and Republicans have unique and succinct perspectives against the virus. This is so because of the lack of enough evidence of the vaccine against the condition. Some organizations have tirelessly been working, and some are associating with others to come up with safe and effective Coronavirus vaccines. Even so, there have been differences that make the vaccines doubtable. The recognized safe and effective vaccines could be game-changers in the present world coupled with the issue. The lack of enough evidence, consistency, and a single drug to prevent the transmission, infection, and protection against the disease leads the world into a bizarre moment and left to decide on whether to take the vaccine or not. Therefore, there is still the need to have a concise answer regarding its vaccination and the most relevant drug for the purpose.
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ReplyDeleteHey Clark your post was really thoughtful and well put together. I do feel though that you put too much importance and value on Fox and Republican politicians in terms of the way constituents value their opinion. We all know news outlets play off of a particular viewer base’s already held beliefs and opinions. So I do not think these leaders or news anchors are leading people to not getting vaccinated or “giving them permission” to not get vaccinated. People have concerns and might I add valid concerns. The process of this vaccine being created and distributed was historic in production and distribution. There are many cases in the past of vaccines in the past having long term effects that were not previously known. And considering. President Biden stated in January casted doubt on the vaccine production when he stated, “Let me be clear: I trust vaccines.. I trust scientists. But I don’t trust Donald Trump, and at this moment, the American people can’t either”. Many liberal news outlets casted a negative light on the speed of this vaccine production as well…. Until Biden took office. So I believe this issue is severely politicized and by both parties. But that should not undermine the valid concerns of citizens no matter their party allignment.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/16/us/politics/biden-trump-coronavirus-vaccine.html
I agree. I think that in order to change the perception in regard to the vaccine is to first get Republican leaders to act as an example for their party. One can not expect to lead without people following in their footsteps; although being a Republican party member does not qualify someone as having a "title" or status of importance, the fact still remains that, if someone is in the public eye, every act of theirs will be seen...and right now, those actions are dodging COVID-19 related questions and not getting vaccinated. In another sense, some republicans might be doing this because they initially agreed with the point of there not being a virus to begin with. All in all, in order to get everyone on board with getting vaccinated, it's important that factual information is reported to communities with lacking numbers in vaccinations.
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