After falling short on his administration’s efforts to have at least more than half of the adult population of the U.S. partially-vaccinated by July 04, president Biden has continued the effort to reach millions who have yet to be vaccinated.
In remarks from the White House Tuesday, president Biden said, “COVID-19 cases and deaths are down by 90% since January. Millions of fully-vaccinated Americans are getting back to living their lives as they did before. Businesses are reopening and hiring and rehiring. And predicted economic growth is the highest it’s been, projected growth is the highest it’s been in four decades…
“But our fight against the virus is not over. Right now, as I speak to you, millions of Americans are still unvaccinated and unprotected, and because of that, their communities are at risk. Their friends are at risk. The people they care about are at risk. This is an even bigger concern because of the Delta variant.”
Despite any and all efforts to convince Americans to get vaccinated, conservative media has been effective in pushing misinformation to convince their viewers that vaccines are dangerous, and any safety precautions pertaining to the spread of the virus, are nothing short of authoritarian.
The reasons behind vaccination hesitancy, according to Amanda Marcotte, are conspiracy theories, and right-wing trolling. In her Salon article Biden Didn’t Fall Short Of July 04 Vaccination Goal, He Was Sabotaged By Republican Trolls – she makes a case why Republicans are partially responsible for many Americans who have refused to be vaccinated.
“Trump supporters are so angry and bitter at Biden that they have weaponized their own bodies to to sabotage his efforts to end the pandemic,” she writes. “Maybe it feels to them as if refusing the vaccination is a good way to stick it to the liberals – who are admittedly exasperated by this behavior – the main result is that the pandemic is raging out of control in “red” areas of the country, while blue states and regions are getting back to normal...
“To put it even more bluntly, Republicanism is killing people. On the Democratic side of the aisle, polarization is not a problem. If anything, it probably saved lives, because many Democratic voters made it a point of pride to get vaccinated as soon as possible. All of the 18 states that have surpassed Biden’s 70% goal, voted for him in the 2020 election...
“To make things worse, Fox News, eager to find a way to sabotage Biden’s pandemic efforts ( and his entire presidency ), has convinced its viewers that only hated liberals get the shot. So, the vaccines have become aligned with vegan cookery, “Critical Race Theory,” or driving a Prius: Something conservatives are convinced is sinister and will somehow infect them with socialism…
“As long as vaccination rates are tied up with media assessments of Biden’s success as president, Republican voters – and the propaganda of right-wing media – will have an incentive to keep refusing the vaccine. They weren’t quite able to steal the election for Donald Trump, but they can offer their own bodies up as sacrifices to keep the virus circulating in an effort to make Joe Biden look bad…
“This problem falls outside Biden’s power to fix. If anything, the harder he pushes people to get vaccinated, the more Republicans will dig in their heels and refuse. It’s time for the media to stop blaming Biden and put the blame where it squarely belongs: On Trump, on spiteful, embittered Republicans and on right-wing media, which would rather kill off its own viewers than give a Democratic president a legitimate win.”
“The bottom line is, my administration is doing everything it can to lead a government response at the federal, state and local levels to defeat the pandemic,” Biden said. “We need everyone to do their part.”
Unfortunately, Republicans in Congress, and media will do their part to convince the rubes that Biden’s efforts to vaccinate the population, are nothing more than communism, and are to be resisted.
Sources: NY Times, The Week, Salon, therev.com/Biden Transcripts.
The Weekly News 