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How to immunize skeptics in the US? With “Trump vaccine”

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The delta variant and the stagnation of vaccination in the US have forced some Republican leaders to encourage their followers to get vaccinated, not to mention Trump.

Republican Sarah Huckabee-Sanders had an important confession to make: “A few months ago, I decided to take advantage of President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed and get vaccinated.” And all, Huckabee-Sanders explained in the column published in a local Arkansas newspaper, despite the “misinformation” that came from politicians and the “arrogance” of Dr Fauci and the media. 

Getting immunized with the “Trump vaccine,” she concluded, was a personal decision, the result of reflection and the fact that Trump himself and his family had been vaccinated.

One can see from 10,000 kilometers the political bias of Sanders’ column, who was a spokesperson for Donald Trump and is a candidate for governor of Arkansas, a position her father held for 11 years. But, in reality, it is a subtle operation to convince that mass of compatriots who distrust or directly deny the benefits of the covid vaccine. 

A part of the population, as different polls show, is markedly Republican.

In Arkansas itself, a rural and conservative stronghold, only 36% of citizens have been vaccinated, about half the number in Vermont, Massachusetts or New York City. 

Hence, Huckabee-Sanders begins her article by touching the most sensitive strings of the Trumpist heart: the spurious ‘establishment’, Fauci and his God complex, the press addicted to the Democratic Party, personal decision, without the State Father interfering, etc. Having paved the way for feelings, Huckabee strikes: the vaccine is safe, get vaccinated!

The increasingly palpable reality, as reflected in the fact that covid cases have quadrupled since June exclusively among unvaccinated, is that vaccine skeptics would be lengthening the pandemic.

An attitude that seems to be pulling some Republican leaders out of their balancing games between the need to vaccinate the population and that sacred respect for individual freedom that they evoke, for example, in the gun debate, and that is evident in that resistance to the state putting a new drug on your arm.

Whether or not to convince your voters

Moving in this territory of gray, the conservatives allege that the State is haughty and that all those medical spokesmen speak from a pedestal and this is not how things are communicated. 

“They don’t want to be indoctrinated,” former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said on ABC News, referring to the reluctants. 

But not all Republican leaders are convinced or willing to persuade their voters. The reluctance is as present in the street as it is in Congress. Roughly half of Republican MPs, perhaps aware that, like everything else in the United States, it is a politicized issue, they still do not openly say whether or not they have received the vaccine. Among its voters, the proportion of those who trust to get the puncture also hovers around 54%.

The reluctant allege that everyone is responsible for making their decision and that politicians are not the ones to preach. 

“I don’t think it’s anybody’s damn business whether or not I’m vaccinated,” Rep. Chip Roy of Texas told CNN. 

“This is ridiculous, what we are doing. The American people are fully capable of making an informed decision about whether or not they want the vaccine.”

Others, like Steve Scalise, the number two Republican in the House of Representatives, have taken the leap, have been vaccinated and have published the photo. The state Scalise comes from, Louisiana, has one of the lowest proportions of vaccinated in the United States and one of the highest incidences of new infections. 

Meanwhile, Democratic cities and some businesses are going on the offensive. 

They have realized that beer shots, opera tickets or $ 100 vouchers are not enough to convince those who hesitate or do not want to be vaccinated, so they are starting to get serious.

The mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, has announced that as of September 13, all municipal employees must be vaccinated or have a weekly PCR test. One of the reasons that have encouraged De Blasio is that some of the city’s organs show low vaccination rates

In the Police Department, only 43% of the personnel have been immunized, below 70% of the New York average. In the Department of Corrections, 42%. The New York Administration has 340,000 employees.

California will do the same for state officials, and at the federal level, the Department of Veterans Affairs will also require proof of vaccination from its employees (without the weekly PCR option). 

As Axios points out, more than 50 medical associations are calling for the vaccine to be mandatory for healthcare workers, a thorny issue that has generated a lawsuit (later dismissed) in the state of Texas. The rate of immunization has gone from four million punctures a day in April to just over half a million a day.

According to the CDC, the contagious delta variant is responsible for 83% of new COVID cases in the US. 

Infections that are refilling hospitals in Utah and some counties in Florida, the state that accounts for a fifth of cases. Hospitals confirm that almost all infections occur among the unvaccinated.

The situation is generating palpable levels of frustration and anger among those who did get the vaccine, as indicated by newspaper cartoons, angry columns or the usual debates heard in a bar or among friends. The fact that the longed-for group immunity is not achieved also has consequences for those vaccinated: although the chances of getting sick are much lower, they still exist and cases are reported every day, some of them fatal.

Despite the evident new wave, the unfortunate numbers remain far from the highs recorded last winter: one day in February more than 5,000 covid deaths were recorded. The average for the last week is 275. The same goes for infections.

In January, nearly 250,000 a day were given; this week, they range from 30,000 to 60,000. Former CDC Director Tom Frieden warns, however, that if things continue like this, we could return to that 200,000-a-day range.

The CDC, after relaxing restrictions this spring, has again recommended wearing the mask in crowded places and the Government of Joe Biden, despite personal pressure from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, has announced that it will maintain the ban on travel from the Schengen area until further notice. A disappointment for the transport and tourism industry, and for Europeans who had planned to travel to the United States for personal or professional reasons.

Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images

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