At the onset of the pandemic almost two years ago, people around the world pleaded with scientists to find a vaccine to help the world return to some form of normalcy. Just about a year into the pandemic after an outpouring of significant resources including funding and never before seen collaboration between scientists, that’s just what happened.
Vaccines like Astra Zeneca began emerging on the scene and many felt relieved while many others almost immediately pulled out their Google degrees to disparage the unbelievably remarkable progress that the world’s scientists had made. As the vaccine rollout programs began another issue would rear its ugly head as it appeared that only higher income and first world countries were gaining access to vaccines.
Fast forward to 2021, where that issue, while not fully resolved, has been sorted out to some extent. The President of the United States has even announced that the US has a surplus of vaccines. In fact, just about five days ago, President Biden announced that he would be donating 17 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine from domestic supplies to the African Union.
This brings us to a pertinent question: If the US has so many vaccines why is it that only a little over 57% of the American population has been vaccinated according to the most current data? Of course, vaccine hesitancy probably has its headquarters in the US but who is pushing the agenda that emboldens them and worse discourages those on the fence about the Covid-19 vaccine? {ARTICLE CONTINUED AFTER VIDEO]
Where is the hesitancy coming from?
There may be no clear cut answer for this but experts agree the largest section of the American population that is hesitant are the conservative, evangelical, and rural Americans. And, of course, those who cannot let go of a Pro-Trump America.
This can be proven by the wide disparity in the number of people who have been vaccinated in states where Biden won the vote as opposed to Trump states. To give you a better idea of what that number is, according to an article in The Atlantic, “the vaccination gap had widened to almost 12 points: 46.7 percent were fully vaccinated in Biden counties, 35 percent in Trump counties. When pollsters ask about vaccine intentions, they record a 30-point gap: 88 percent of Democrats, but only 54 percent of Republicans, want to be vaccinated as soon as possible.”
Staggering numbers for sure and numbers that prove who is actually holding back America from hitting better targets like their first-world counterparts. In England, they are well on their way to 70% vaccination, while Canada has surpassed 70%.
There’s also no shortage of incentives to get vaccinated in the US. Many companies have offered free food, cash and in some cases even a chance to win a million dollars. These methods have still not worked because the Republicans are working steadfastly to make it more comfortable for unvaccinated people. They’re doing this by enacting legislation that helps to protect unvaxxed people. Laws that stop business owners from requiring proof of vaccination to enter or dine. These laws extend all the way to places that are known for having large gatherings like national stadiums and cruise ships.
In Tennessee, Republican state lawmakers were successful in their bid to get health officials to stop outreach to children for all vaccines. That includes even sending reminders about the second dose of a Covid vaccine. What is mind-boggling about their approach to vaccination is that their former leader, Trump, is an advocate of vaccinations. In fact, he is vaccinated, though he took his shot in private.
Just this year, he was quoted on Fox News as saying, that he was a “big believer in what we did with the vaccine.” He added to that: “it’s incredible what we did. You see the results.” Yet the approach seems to be from the Republicans, some of whom are vaccinated, to keep discouraging their followers to do the right thing to get out of the pandemic. It’s not just the US that is hoping that they get out of the pandemic but the rest of the world who still depend largely on the US economy for trade and goods.
There’s been a total turnaround by the Republicans on the issue of vaccinating the public. According to the New York Times, the Representative for Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Greene, has urged Americans to “just say no” to the vaccine.
She’s also quoted as saying on Twitter: “People have a choice, they don’t need your medical brown shirts showing up at their door ordering vaccinations. You can’t force people to be part of the human experiment.”
This kind of sentiment is echoed on social media and right wing media outlets and the results are devastating in terms of vaccine hesitancy. In the end the anti-vax community kills people who could be alive.
Vaccines work
There has been much inaccurate and false information being spread about the Covid-19 vaccines. Some have claimed that it makes you magnetic, others insist that a chip is inserted into your body so that various governments can track you. Many have already pointed out that this would be unnecessary as most modern technologies have tracking capabilities like cellphones.
While it remains true that some people have had adverse reactions to the vaccine, it’s also been proven that of those, many already had underlying health conditions.
The fact is according to the science and the data, vaccines work. They don’t just work, they save lives. Take a look at the stats and decide for yourself. About 99.992% of vaccinated people have never been infected and the 0.008% who picked up the virus did not have any major symptoms or suffer any complications.
The choice is still yours but it really narrows down to whether you feel like dying or not.