U.S. Republican politicians are facing increasing pressure and need to speak out and persuade Coronavirus disease Vaccine skeptics roll up their sleeves and give injections because a new, more contagious variant has caused the number of cases to soar. But after months of ignoring — and in some cases even inciting — wrong information about the virus, experts warned that it may be too late to change the minds of many who reject it.
In recent press conferences and statements, some prominent Republicans have been begging their voters to put lingering doubts aside. In Washington, the so-called Doctors Caucus gathered at the Capitol to participate in an event to fight vaccine hesitation. In Florida, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis (Ron DeSantis) pointed out this week that data shows that the vast majority of hospitalized COVID-19 patients are not vaccinated.
“These vaccines are saving lives,” said DeSantis, who recently started selling campaign products that mimic masks and medical experts.
Due to declining vaccination rates, COVID-19 cases in the United States tripled in two weeks
Due to the surge of new delta variants, especially in areas with low vaccination rates in the country, the number of COVID-19 cases in the United States has almost tripled in the past two weeks, so outreach activities are being conducted. Public health officials believe that the variant is at least twice as infectious as the original version, but these vaccines seem to provide most people with strong protection against serious diseases.
In fact, almost all deaths from COVID-19 in the United States are people who have not been vaccinated. Despite this, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 56.2% of Americans have at least one dose of the vaccine.
According to an AP-NORC poll, overall, only 51% of Republicans said in mid-June that they had at least one dose of the vaccine, compared with 83% of Democrats. Many people seem to have made up their minds. 46% of those who have not been vaccinated say they will never. Among Republicans, even more-53%-said they absolutely would not; only 12% said they planned to do so.
“I think they finally realize that if their people don’t get vaccinated, they will get sick, and if their people don’t get vaccinated, they will be blamed for future COVID outbreaks,” said Republican pollster Frank Lentz. (Frank Luntz) has been working with the Biden government and public health experts to develop effective information transmission methods to make vaccines hesitant.
But Lentz held another focus group meeting on Wednesday night, and he said that there has been a noticeable shift in recent weeks, because skepticism has turned into tough rejection.
“Hesitation turned into opposition. Once opposed, it is difficult to change positions. This is what is happening now,” he said.
For months, many conservative lawmakers and experts have been actively inciting vaccine hesitation, refusing to vaccinate themselves or downplaying the severity of the virus. Republican governors signed a bill to protect unvaccinated people from disclosing their identities and tried to remove the requirement to wear masks. On social media, the proliferation of false information led President Joe Biden to claim that platforms such as Facebook were “killing” — a claim he later rejected.
At a recent conservative gathering, attendees cheered the news that the Biden administration failed to achieve its vaccination goals. The government quoted the top US infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and Republican Representative Lauren Boebert (Lauren Boebert) as saying that he warned: “Don’t bring your Fauci Ochi to knock on my door. You leave us alone.”
Experts warn that the growing vaccine hostility in the United States will be extremely difficult to resolve
Others, including former President Donald Trump, have repeatedly defended those who choose not to be vaccinated, stressing that the decision is a personal choice. Instead, they blamed the Democrats, implying that they should be held responsible for this mistrust.
Trump said in a recent statement: “People refuse to be vaccinated because they don’t trust (Biden’s) government, they don’t trust election results, and of course they don’t trust fake news.”
But there are signs that the information delivery is changing this week because conservative leaders advocate shooting. On Fox News, the host Sean Hannity pleaded with his audience to “take COVID-19 seriously,” he said, “enough people have died.” Senator Chuck Glass of Iowa Lee encouraged “all eligible Iowa/Americans to get vaccinated.”
“The Delta variant scares me, so I hope that those who have not been vaccinated will reconsider,” he wrote.
Rep. Steve Scarlis of Louisiana, the Republican party whip in the House of Representatives, distributed a photo of him receiving the first dose of the vaccine last weekend after insisting on it for several months.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, a polio survivor, has been vaccinating on behalf of COVID-19, and this week urged those who have not been vaccinated to ignore “all other clearly wrong suggestions sound”.
But a press conference held by Republican leaders in the House of Representatives on Thursday highlighted the competing messages of Republicans about the virus.
Originally advertised as Congressional Republican doctors will resolve the rapidly spreading delta variant, the organization has been criticizing China most of the time and unconfirmed claims that the coronavirus came from a laboratory leak in Wuhan. This theory was originally in the distance Popularity. -The right circle, but now seriously considered by scientists. They also attacked Democrats, including Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and the Biden administration, because they did not take more steps to understand the laboratory leak theory.
“The question is, why are the Democrats obstructing our efforts to uncover the origin of the COVID virus?” said the third Republican in the House of Representatives, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik (Elise Stefanik).
Eric Ward, a senior researcher on extremism at the Southern Poverty Law Center, attributed the reluctance of the vaccine to “almost a year and a half of right-wing angry machine speech.”
“Even conservative leaders have a hard time figuring out how to control mainly propaganda activities. They now realize that their electoral districts are particularly vulnerable,” he said.
Although some Republicans may use strong language to promote vaccines, few people propose new measures to urge vaccination, such as incentives, public information campaigns or more active outreach activities.
In New Hampshire, Republican Governor Chris Sununu said on Thursday that the current rate of firing has slowed to around 1,000 shots per week, and there are no immediate plans to introduce new measures.
“Now, it is people’s personal responsibility. If someone has not been vaccinated at this time, they will make a conscious decision,” he said. “The government’s job is to provide that open door. If you want a vaccine, it’s here, it’s good and easy. If you need more information, it’s here. So you and your family can use the All tools to make decisions.”
Other Republicans continue to sell lies.
Earlier this week, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was suspended from posting on Twitter for 12 hours after spreading false information about vaccine-related deaths. Charlie Kirk, the founder of American Turning Point, a popular youth conservative advocacy organization, hosted a conference last weekend that attracted former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and numerous members of Congress. He had no evidence in his podcast. As many as 1.2 million may die after being vaccinated against COVID-19.
In his focus group, Lentz said that many skeptics have been trying to assess the truthfulness of what they read and hear.
“There is so much wrong information there, they can’t distinguish between what is accurate and what is false,” he said. “So when they don’t know what to believe, it’s almost impossible to communicate.”
Associated Press writers Emily Swanson, Holly Ramer, and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.
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