“I believe totally in your freedoms…But I recommend ― take the vaccines. I did it.”- Trump, August, 2021.
By Jack Bernard, contributing columnist
PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. | Trump says get your shots!
While in office, Donald Trump came up with all sorts of strange theories about Covid-19. He pushed weird remedies. But he has slowly been changing his tune.
Although he hasn’t endorsed government mandates, he has passively supported voluntary vaccinations for quite a while. With some surprising reactions from right wingers.
For example, on the Dec. 19, 2021 on No Spin News show, former Fox star Bill O’Reilly asked Trump if he had the booster. He said “Yes” and was booed by his own supporters! (Can you believe that?)
The respected Kaiser Family Foundation has been keeping up with vaccination rates by political party. It found that Republicans (especially conservatives) are just not getting the shots. As of October, 27 percent of Democrats were unvaccinated, as opposed to 60 percent of GOP voters. Further, 88 percent of Republicans believe the “seriousness of Coronavirus” to be “exaggerated.”
Demographically, unvaccinated Republicans tend to be younger and less educated than vaccinated GOP voters. Of these unvaccinated Republicans, 68 percent consider themselves to be conservative.
The real question is who can change their minds? Certainly, not President Joe Biden. Pre-omicron, a survey showed only 11 percent of GOP voters trusted him a “great deal “ or a “fair amount”, as opposed to 81 percent of Democrats. That means to me that apparently Biden is also ineffective as a messenger.
So, here is my take on the situation. There must be a multi-pronged attack to get Americans vaccinated ASAP. The message must be crystal clear and blunt. They must be told that there are only two options: get the three shots or get sick (maybe very sick) with Covid.
As shown above, politicians are not the best messengers. They are simply not trusted. Then, who is? The answer is medical personnel, especially local primary care folks like nurses and family practitioners. Surveys have shown these people are looked upon with respect by Americans.
The federal government must provide guidance and direction to get these people on the air. If there was a standard format, these public service announcements could be placed on every regional TV channel and radio station, tailored using local medical professionals.
Because the Omicron variant is much more contagious, this effort must start immediately. Why it hasn’t already begun is a mystery to me. Both parties need to stop their in-fighting and make this public education effort a priority.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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