Republican Indifference to the Rise in Covid Cases

As numerous articles have indicated, the number of Covid-19 cases in the USA is rising again, most sharply in red states and politically "conservative" pockets in blue states.  The vaccination rate in Alabama, for example is roughly half of what it is in Virginia (where we fortunately have a governor who is a physician) and as the number of cases increases one can expect more fully preventable deaths in Alabama, a state where many wear ignorance as a mark of pride.  What is most disturbing is that far too many Republican elected officials are either downplaying the urgent need for vaccinations or trying to score political points with their base while the numbers of infections rises.  Some, worse yet are deliberately spreading lies about the vaccines and convincing mindless followers to refuse to be vaccinated.  Indeed, 47% of Republicans say they will likely refuse vaccination in what can only be viewed as a perverse death wish for themselves or their loved ones.  A piece in the Washington Post looks at the disturbing phenomenon.  Here are highlights:

In the last two weeks of June, the United States averaged between 11,250 and 13,500 new coronavirus cases per day — the lowest numbers since the virus began spreading widely across the country in early 2020. As of Saturday, it was 31,464 cases per day. With multiple vaccines widely available, this rise was entirely preventable. The backsliding is due in part to Republican politicians and right-wing commentators who have spread misinformation about the virus, as well as colleagues too scared to confront them.

Asked on CNN’s “State of the Union” whether “Republicans need to stop questioning the vaccine and start pushing it instead,” Ohio Sen. Rob Portman ducked. “The vaccines are a miracle,” he replied, before crediting former president Donald Trump for their development.

On “Fox News Sunday,” Portman’s colleague Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) correctly framed the problem as “choosing between vaccination or accepting higher rates of death.” Yet, bizarrely, he blamed distrust of the vaccines not on the many Republican voices raising doubts about them, but on “partisan comments coming out of the White House regarding new Jim Crow laws, or people like Senator Schumer and the White House not cooperating on a bipartisan bill.”

A few Republicans are speaking up as the case count rises. “We have these talking heads who have gotten the vaccine and are telling other people not to get it,” said Utah Gov. Spencer Cox. “That kind of stuff is dangerous, it’s damaging, and it’s killing people.” Utah Sen. Mitt Romney called the politicization of the vaccines “moronic.” But these few voices are trying to fill a void left by their counterparts.

In this vacuum of silence, right-wing voices such as Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham have spread lie after lie about vaccination efforts. And Republican governors such as Kristi L. Noem (S.D.), Ron DeSantis (Fla.) and Mike Parson (Mo.) have encouraged “personal responsibility” or sown fears about government efforts to vaccinate more Americans. Never mind that those governors got their shots months ago. Never mind that, according to some estimates, nearly half of South Dakotans have been infected, or that Florida’s daily case average has quadrupled in the past month. The residents of their states will have to bear the risks, for the good of the governors’ poll numbers.

The most recent Washington Post-ABC poll found that 29 percent of Americans probably or definitely won’t get vaccinated, up 5 points from the last survey, in late April. Forty-seven percent of Republicans said they likely or definitely wouldn’t get vaccinated, compared with just 34 percent of independents and 6 percent of Democrats. The ideological split is, if anything, more obvious: 46 percent of conservatives probably or certainly set against vaccination, vs. only 21 percent of moderates and 16 percent of liberals.

Not all vaccine hesitancy is due to red vs. blue politics, to be clear. The broader anti-vaccine movement that existed before the pandemic remains depressingly prevalent. Some haven’t gotten vaccinated because they simply don’t see it as urgent . . . And there are many Americans who may be hesitant thanks to disinformation and hoaxes spread on social media platforms such as Facebook.

But, as the Post-ABC poll shows, those groups are likely a minority of the unvaccinated. What makes vaccine resistance among Republicans different is that it’s being fanned for partisan gain and right-wing media profit. The result will be hundreds and hundreds — if not thousands — of avoidable deaths. But for those Republicans who stay passive like McConnell, indulge in silly whataboutism like Cassidy, or openly fan the flames like Noem, DeSantis and others, one can only conclude they see this toll as acceptable.