I’m just making an unfounded assumption, but I think many Trumpers are Anti-vaccers (kind of goes along with being antimask in my opinion).
And I think His Orangeness will try to push the thought that a vaccine is right around the corner (or only delayed because of that damn testing/approval thing) to help in his reelection.
But whenever it comes, I preemptively pit anti-vaccers who will refuse to take a Covid 19 vaccine (to be clear, a fully tested and approved vaccine).
And for those who thought it was a hoax or fake news, even if you want the vaccine, get to the back of the line.
The Anti-Vaxxers seem to be split on both sides of the political divide. You have your very liberal super-crunch granola types from the far-left and on the far right you have some of the Fundamentalist Religious types and of course your conspiracy theory and fake news crowd.
I’m sure whether red or blue, the anti-vaxxers will not be monolithic in their decision making. I hope most will choose to get the vaccine. The more people that vaccinate the better we all are.
The right-wing crazy anti-maskers won’t want the vaccine. But those aren’t the people that will decide this election, they were only ever going to vote one way. For the swing voters with a modicum of sanity it certainly matters what they think about Trump’s handling of the pandemic, that’s why Trump is pushing for a vaccine before the election.
The left-wing anti-vaxxers won’t take it. They’re as whackjob as the right-wing conspiracy theorists. In fact they should get together and get their minds blown by seeing how much their beliefs overlap.
My mother, a right-winger, supported Trump. Fortunately she’s not American so she couldn’t vote for him. She dumped Trump over the coronavirus, but became an anti-vaxxer as well. Her very real fear of the virus caused her to fear the vaccine once she learned how vaccines are made (dead or weakened viruses are used as ingredients in vaccines).
Most anti-vaxxers probably think COVID-19 is not serious. My mother is a bit strange, but only a little. Lots of anti-vaxxers believe in fictitious “side effects” prompted by fear of the ingredients, Big Pharma, etc. There’s dubious reasons for left-wingers to fear vaccines (Big Pharma) and right-wingers (government “overreach”). They don’t have to agree on why they oppose vaccines to be anti-vaxxers.
There is also likely to be an additional large portion of people on the left (possibly myself included) who are not anti-vax in general but are concerned about the safety of this particular vaccine, given the way that politics rather than science appears to be driving its development.
Trump has a way of making what were previously whackjob over the top conspiracy theories, plausible reality.
Historically speaking that was true, still though a minority on both parties then; but more recently the crank/conspiracy magnet machine entrenched in the GOP is in the process of doing with vaccination what it did with tobacco use, evolution, climate science, mask use, and other items.
Turning issues where science should guide us into political litmus tests against it is a feature now for the Republicans, while Democrats are discouraging leaders to follow the anti-vaxxination racket, Republicans are even getting anti-vaxxers in power now and giving them more power.
Personally, even if they don’t admit to it in public and ignoring any reasoning (school/work requiring it), I think a lot of anti-vaxxers will get the vaccine.
Keep in mind the overwhelming majority of anti-vaxxers had vaccines growing up, what they’re doing is refusing to give their children vaccines. That means that even if their kid gets measles or mumps, they’re protected, and it should be noted, with no side effects.
I’m sure a lot of them will refuse to give their kids the vaccine, but I bet a lot of them will get it for themselves.
The problem with the hypothetical is that the vaccine isn’t even ready yet so a lot of people will be skeptical about trying it when we don’t have any long term data.
I think a more interesting question is, if we found out that the measles vaccine ‘wears off’ after 50 years and requires a booster, would anti-vaxxer parents go and get it? They know that herd immunity is dropping and more (unvaccinated) kids are getting it, so will they get a booster to make sure they don’t get sick?
I’d love to say that anyone that’s promoted non-vaccination should go to the back of the line when the vaccine comes out, but like the virus, the vaccine doesn’t care about how you feel about it and the more vaccinated people the better.
Among the general public, antivaccine views have long been fairly evenly spread among left and right-wingers. A recent poll found that the percentage of Americans believing that childhood vaccination is extremely/very important continues to be about the same when comparing Republicans and Democrats, though overall that percentage has dropped somewhat.
Among politicians, the small but still concerning minority who hold antivax views are far more likely to be Republicans than Democrats. Lately, some Democratic leaders have been fanning distrust of a potential Covid-19 vaccine, a not entirely unreasonable action given the politicization of vaccine development by the current Administration (the latest example being Trump casting doubt on whether the FDA will be allowed to have a panel of outside experts weigh in on approval of a vaccine).
In answer to the OP, hard-core antivaxers have already made it clear that they’ll avoid any Covid-19 vaccine for all the usual stupid reasons plus relatively new ones (tracking chips, mind control, institution of a Bill Gatesian world order, you name it).
In my social media, anti-vaxxers are usually left-of-center types whose “argument” is that vaccines are just a trick by the Mega Corporations of Big Pharma to earn even more profits, when all you really need to be healthy is mung bean extract and tumeric pills. Of course, they aren’t likely to take a vaccine approved by the Trump administration.
…because treating the diseases vaccines prevent, makes no money at all for Big Pharma.
That’s “almost $1 million”.
Post that story to your social media groups, and the response will typically be dead silence, changing the subject or accusations that you’re a pharma troll.
Bumping this because as I feared, reports are coming that the crank machine currently entrenched in the Republican party is succeeding in turning the vaccination issue into a political one, just like others where science was supposed to guide us.
@Jackmannii , you were correct that among politicians the Republican leaders were more likely to have antivax views, but I still do not see that Democrats are following that death wish, and now most of the rank and file Republicans are the ones being affected by the propaganda as I feared.
But the party split was notable: Eighty-eight percent of Democrats said they planned to get vaccinated, compared to 57% of unaffiliated voters and just 29% of Republicans who were polled.
Rural voters (23% yes) and Trump voters (24% yes) said they were much less likely to get vaccinated in comparison to suburban women (61% yes) and four-year college voters (68% yes).
This is more deadly than swallowing the manufactured conspiracy that the last election was rigged.
“Last November, before any vaccines had been approved, the gap between Democrats who said they planned to get vaccinated (51 percent) and Republicans who said the same (43 percent) was relatively small. Not anymore. Now, a full 78 percent of Democrats say they have gotten vaccinated or will get vaccinated versus just 47 percent of Republicans — a 31-point chasm.”
The latest polling data I’ve seen shows a little under two-thirds of black and Hispanic people say they’ll definitely or probably be vaccinated. That’s less than the three-quarters of whites who say the same thing, but not as big a gap as previously.
Assume half the country gets vaccinated. The vaccine is 95% protective, but with only half the country vaccinated, herd immunity is not achieved, and community spread continues. 95% of the people who continue to die and get seriously ill will now be the unvaccinated.
I mean, of course I’d rather we get to herd immunity and the pandemic ends. But at least at this point the stupidity of antivaxxers is doing far more harm to themselves than to others, even if that’s cold comfort to the 5%.
I know two anti-vaxxers. Neither will not get the vaccine. One of them, A., said the Covid vaccine broke her friend’s arm. Apparently, the woman got dizzy days after she got the vaccine, fell, and broke her arm.
Interestingly, A. gets her cats vaccinated against rabies. Apparently she’s not concerned that her cats, who get pricey organic cat food, will suffer the vague damage she’s convinced “Big Pharma,” which makes many veterinary vaccines, inflicts on us humans.
That pandemic-related promotion has already been roundly criticized by vocal anti-vaxxers, Twitter users with a half-dozen American flag emojis in their bios, and people who constantly quote the Constitution and George Orwell, despite never reading either one.
Sooo accurate!
And these two acquaintances aren’t anti-doughnut, PROVIDED said doughnuts are gluten-free, non-GMO, organic, and, of course, locally sourced.
Damn. Now I want a Krispy Kreme doughnut (Free!), and there aren’t any around here.
Yes, a physician actually reported this case as being related to the vaccine* (the fall and drowning occurred 49 days after vaccination). Note also that this case report appears on the website of the National Vaccine Information Center, the antivax organization headed up by Barbara Loe Fisher which has been fearmongering about Covid-19 vaccination.
*VAERS is one of several systems set up to monitor potential vaccine side effects. Anyone (doctors, patients, parents, personal injury lawyers etc.) can make a report to VAERS, whether or not there’s a rational basis for suspecting a vaccine reaction; if there’s sufficient evidence to suggest correlation, then further investigation is warranted. One of the most notorious VAERS reports was made by someone claiming that a vaccine turned him into the Incredible Hulk (he was actually a vaccine supporter testing whether his claim would be published - and it would have been if he hadn’t admitted to VAERS that it was a phony report).
I took my vaccine card and got my first free one today! Gave it to the 13yo I was picking up from track practice. She’d just run 2 miles, figured she could use the after school calories. Worked like a charm-pulled up in the drive through, ordered the doughnut, showed my card at the window, smiled at the clerk and then drove away. 262 more chances to do that til Dec31st.
Apparently, the woman got dizzy days after she got the vaccine, fell, and broke her arm.
Gave it to the 13yo I was picking up from track practice. She’d just run 2 miles, figured she could use the after school calories. Worked like a charm-pulled up in the drive through, ordered the doughnut, showed my card at the window, smiled at the clerk and then drove away. 262 more chances to do that til Dec31st.