The Sinister Reason(s) Why Republicans Now Want Their Voters Vaccinated

[Celerity]

Fox News and Republicans have suddenly changed their mind on the Covid-19 vaccine. Why?

https://thebanter.substack.com/p/the-sinister-reasons-why-republicans



Just weeks into the pandemic in 2020, Lieutenant Governor of Texas Dan Patrick went on Tucker Carlson’s show and suggested America sacrifice its elderly population for the sake of the economy. “Those of us who are 70 plus, we’ll take care of ourselves,” Patrick told Carlson. “But don’t sacrifice the country.” Patrick was also convinced that Democrats did not know what they were doing and were instead attempting to destroy the country for their own nefarious purposes. “If the Democrats ever had total control, they would put people like you and me in jail and throw away the key,” he went on. “And that’s what they’re doing because they now have total control Tucker, they have total control. And everywhere you see this draconian rules of locking down people and keeping businesses shut and destroying our country. It’s mostly Democratic governors, Democrat county judges, Democrat mayors, almost everywhere.” Patrick was widely mocked for his stance given the terror most of the population felt during the early days of Covid-19. But much to Patrick’s delight, the Trump administration did almost exactly what he suggested. Fast forward 16 months and over 600,000 Americans have died — an estimated 40% of whom passed due to the Trump administration’s severe mishandling of the crisis. Furthermore, most of those deaths happened in states with Republican governors. Republican voters were largely unconcerned by any of this. 74 million of them still voted for Trump, despite him almost wiping out his own administration and killing off thousands of fellow Americans.

There were, it seemed, enough Republicans unaffected by the virus for them to think it wasn’t such a big deal. Republican governors refused to enforce mask mandates, waged war on Dr. Anthony Fauci, and did not listen to advice from public health officials. When the vaccines came out, most prominent Republicans, including Trump, refused to take them publicly. Fox News engaged in a vaccine misinformation war, encouraging viewers to ignore the science and listen to conspiracy theorists like Alex Berenson. As Aaron Rupar at Vox noted: A major theme of Fox’s Covid-19 coverage in the winter months was trying to reframe the pandemic not as a humanitarian disaster that at the time was killing more than 2,000 Americans daily, but as an economic problem created by Democrats that predominately hurt business owners and workers. More recently, Fox’s approach has been to highlight rare negative reactions to the Covid-19 vaccine, ignoring the broader context that getting vaccinated is far safer than actually contracting the disease. The Food and Drug Administration, for example, recently reiterated that even after a new rare side effect of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was found, “the known and potential benefits clearly outweigh the known and potential risks.” Fox has also misleadingly suggested those who have had Covid-19 don’t need to get vaccinated.

As new, far more contagious and potentially deadly variants of the Covid virus spread rapidly through the population, Republicans and Fox News hosts are now suddenly changing their tune. Vaccines are apparently now safe, and everyone needs to get one as soon as possible. This remarkable about turn has not gone unnoticed. As Susan B. Glasser wrote in the New Yorker this week: The Louisiana congressman Steve Scalise, the House’s No. 2 Republican, posed for a photo of himself getting a vaccine shot, many months after he was eligible, and urged others to do the same. “Get the vaccine,” Scalise said, at a press conference on Thursday. “I have high confidence in it. I got it myself.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a polio survivor who was never on board with his party’s vaccine denialists and anti-maskers, warned, during his own press conference: either get vaccinated or get ready for more lockdowns. “This is not complicated,” McConnell said. Fox News, which, along with Facebook, has been among the country’s premier platforms for vaccine disinformation in recent months, started promoting a new get-vaccinated public-service announcement. Its prime-time star, the Trump confidant Sean Hannity, stared straight into the camera on Monday night and said, “It absolutely makes sense for many Americans to get vaccinated.”

David A. Graham at The Atlantic also reported on the trend: Steve Doocy, one of the anchors of the network’s popular morning show Fox & Friends, has been advocating for vaccines, and tangling with co-hosts over it. “If you have the chance, get the shot,” he said yesterday. “It will save your life.”…. Ben Shapiro of The Daily Wire, who has been a vocal proponent of vaccination all along, also told his followers today on Twitter, “Get vaxxed. I did. My wife did. My parents did.” Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy, a confidant of Donald Trump, today published a column praising the current president: “Six months into his administration, President Joe Biden should be applauded for making a huge dent in the COVID pandemic.” What exactly is going on? Glasser believes the answer is quite simple: Republicans are dying, and vaccinated Democrats are not: At the end of June, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that eighty-six per cent of Democrats had at least one shot, versus fifty-two per cent of Republicans—and the gap in vaccination rates is not closing but widening. As of July, thirty-five per cent of the population in counties that voted for Trump had been vaccinated, compared with nearly forty-seven per cent in counties that voted for Biden. By this week, new daily cases nationally were at their highest level since April. Deaths are increasing, too, while the number of new vaccinations is down to January levels.

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[OnDoutside]

1. I think that is probably the case alright. Do you remember when

the mask mandate for vaccinated people was lifted by the CDC ? People here complained that it was too soon, but I said at the time that it now put the onus on the unvaccinated to mask up, get vaccinated or suffer the consequences. It didn't take long for this to play out, now that the data is in that it's red states predominantly who are spiking.

[murielm99]

2. They thought they would make Biden look bad

for not meeting his vaccination goals. It would be good propaganda for them. Repugs would stay in office. More repubbies would be elected.

It backfired. Not only are more of them dying, President Biden has something like a 66% approval rating for his handling of the pandemic. That is bothering them, too.

Maybe he is Teflon Joe. I hope so.

[KS Toronado]

14. Always felt that was their reasoning, make Biden & Dems look bad

Straight out of Moscow Mitch's playbook.

[CrispyQ]

27. +1

Don't do anything that might make the dems look good. It's their #1 rule.

[Skittles]

3. ?

they not only did not get vaccinated, they spread it far and wide

the CDC really dropped the ball regarding masking

[Tadpole Raisin]

4. Yup, Rs could care less about their constituents

Health although they made sure their families got the vaccine.

What they do care about, what they only care about EVER is getting re-elected. Their voters are rubes to be used and abused.

The voters who almost died or whose family or friends died and are just beginning to figure this out need to be asked “why do you continue to listen to these people and watch Fox News when they were the ones willing to send you to your death?”

Their memory is short though. We know most will forgive their torturers.

[murielm99]

5. They will not be that easy to turn around.

Once they have decided the vaccine is bad, they will stay the course out of sheer stubbornness. Stupid is not that easy to eradicate.

[ananda]

19. I say, let em eat spikes and die.

I really don't care, do u?

[area51]

23. I don't care that they choose to play Russian Roulette by not getting vaccinated,

but I do care that (1) they may infect innocent people such as children under 12 and the immune compromised who can't get the vaccine right now, (2) they're potentially breeders of new variants, and (3) if a lot of them in an area get sick around the same time and wind up in the ICU, that's fewer beds that are available for patients who have heart attacks, car accidents, etc.

[ananda]

24. True.. without infecting anyone else, for sure.

I guess that's impossible, but I really don't care
about them.

[Vogon_Glory]

25. Yep, right-wing and Republican disinformation about COVID-19 will continue

Last edited Sat Jul 24, 2021, 11:44 AM - Edit history (1)

to kill their credulous followers or ruin their followers’ health. The politicians, the propagandists, and their apparatchiks may change their tune as nimbly as the Soviet Union’s Communist Party did several times in the early 1940’s, but their followers will be much longer at changing their thinking—assuming that they ever do.

You know, these righties like to say how much smarter they are than us “Libs.” Surely they heard the story of the little boy who cried “Wolf!” SOMEWHERE before they started wearing trousers?

[bucolic_frolic]

6. Hatred, paranoia, irrational fear came home to roost

People so dense in the head they could not be reached for any reason, not even life itself.

They brought this on themselves, or their GOP party leaders brought this to their doorstep.

I have sympathy for them. I do. The emptiness in a downsized empty household is painful, disruptive to homes and communities, there's nothing conservative about it. But they could not be reached mentally. They did not engage. They only felt hatred for liberals, and echoed all the hatred of hate radio and hate maga rallies. In some perverse way, it's like they earned it. In fact they worked hard for it, and gave their time and money for it.

[malaise]

7. Excellent read

Thanks sis
K & R

[joshcryer]

8. Their analytics came in and they lost a chunk of voters.

Even 1% could sway entire elections with how close things get here.

[thucythucy]

9. Their whole strategy was contingent on blue states

getting hit the hardest and red states somehow skating through. Of course that's not how viruses work, but what can you expect from a party led by a man who seriously suggests people ingest bleach as a way of warding off infection?

Wasn't it Jared Kushner who was advising the Slobfather to downplay the pandemic, since it was impacting mostly blue states?

But now that it's hurting (and killing) "the wrong people" we'll see their leadership try to turn on a dime.

Irony of ironies--their whole campaign blew up in their faces.

I suspect the same will happen with climate change. Once red states and counties start feeling the brunt of the full impact of climate change--for instance the Florida coastline awash, parts of Louisiana subsumed by the Gulf, temperatures in the Dakotas and the south staying in triple digits for weeks on end, multiple "thousand year storms" hitting the southeast in rapid succession, the Texas power grid failing again and again--they'll suddenly start telling us how they knew all along that climate change was real, but those pesky Democrats refused to listen.

If so many millions of people weren't being hurt, the extent of their twisting and turning would be laughable.

[Grokenstein]

10. Remember the "The Stupid, It Burns" meme?

I would usually respond with "I wish it would only burn the stupid themselves."

Their ongoing idiocy will ensure we may all have to cope with COVID for years to come, but I guess this is as close as I'll ever get to having my wish.

[The Magistrate]

11. Cold But Fair, Ma'am

On present lines, by October it is going to look like last January in our 'red states'....

[Aussie105]

12. You have the right

to call COVID-19 a hoax.

You have the right to not get vaccinated.

You have the right not to wear a mask.

You have the right to get sick and die a horrible death.

People have the right to call you stupid, and maybe mourn over your death.

BUT!

You don't have the right to pass it on and kill more vulnerable people.

Just do your civic duty, get vaccinated, wear a mask, keep your distance, wash your hands often, you know the drill by now.

You might just save a life. It may even be yours.

Here in Aus, I have proof that people are stupid, it doesn't just stop at the American border.
Sydney is in the center of a hotspot, fairly minor by American/Indian/Indonesian standards.
So is Melbourne.
Mandatory mask wearing, shut down of all non-essential businesses, forced lockdown; police can stop you in the street and fine you if your out-of-home trip isn't essential.

So we have protesters out on the street, large groups, no masks, proclaiming about their 'Freedums' being restricted.
Mainly young people.
Police have arrested quite a few.
Give it two weeks to see if these were super-spreader events.

Here in South Australia, we are on a one week lockdown. Going well, only one new case reported, lots of testing done.
Total cases 7.
People in the shops doing QR code scanning, all wearing masks, all looking at each other suspiciously and keeping their distance.
Hopefully, the one week lockdown won't need to be extended.

You got to catch an outbreak early. Most parts of the US, they were not. Too much politics, too much Hannity, too much Fox.
Too many deaths.

Doing a backflip on vaccinations won't do much, that horse has bolted a long time ago.
The vaccines take a while to take effect. Not like 'vaccinate today, immune tomorrow.'

[milestogo]

18. Thank you.

Good to hear how things are going in Australia.

[oldsoftie]

13. I saw a FB post saying "Just wait till EBS starts'

But when asked, he wouldnt explain what that WAS; only saying "I'll pray for you". Tried to google "vaccine conspiracy EBS" to no avail. Others asked as well but got nothing. His other numbers were totally off as well. He's a friend of a friend, so I dont know what kind of guy he is other than someone who apparently believes ANYTHING thats anti-vax. I dont get these people

[KS Toronado]

17. " Election Bull Shit "???? Aug 13th????

[oldsoftie]

21. LOLOLOL! I said "Ear-itable Bowel Syndrome"

didnt go over well

[oswaldactedalone]

22. Could EBS be this?

Vaccines produced by Emergent BioSolutions?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-19/emergent-didn-t-address-problems-in-vaccine-process-panel-says

[3Hotdogs]

15. But the pieces of shit Repub leaders and dumb-ass followers

are endangering my grandkids who can't get the vaccine.

[LymphocyteLover]

16. Republicans waking up to the fact that their voters are dying is a "sinister reason"?

Weird headline.

[usaf-vet]

20. You didn't need to be a Ph.D. to realize that this was going to eventually hit the GQP.....

..... across the head. Now they have a lot of explaining to do. Especially to all of the families that voted for TFG and lost loved ones to Covid.

[BlueWavePsych]

26. 700 DOW drop last Monday.