"But while 6 percent of Democrats say they aren’t likely to get vaccinated, 47 percent of Republicans fall into that camp, with 38 percent of Republicans overall saying they will definitely not get shots against the virus."
This is a good thing. It means more Republicans will be dropping dead. Dead Republicans can't vote.
Showing posts with label Republican assholes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Republican assholes. Show all posts
Sunday, July 4, 2021
Friday, June 11, 2021
Republicans are stupid fucking assholes.
A comment I wrote at the Washington Post:
"Republicans pushed to open up remote and largely-pristine areas in Alaska to drilling, mining and logging while Trump was in office, from its southeast edge to the western Arctic and the Bering Sea."
I don't know why the Republicans want to destroy the environment. Maybe it's because they're stupid, and a few other adjectives I can't use here.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Washington Post
Biden officials move to reinstate Alaska roadless rule, overturning Trump policy
The proposal would affect 9.3 million acres of forest, including vast areas of old growth, Bill Clinton originally protected in 2001.
Wednesday, June 9, 2021
Here is more evidence for the idea that Republicans are fucking morons. These are the assholes who suck up to Trump, the stupidest president in United States history.
Wall Street Journal
What Drives GOP Resistance to Vaccines?
Eight in 10 Democrats have at least one dose, compared with about half of Republicans.
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I wrote this comment:
What Drives GOP Resistance to Vaccines?
That's easy. About half of Republicans are not too bright.
What Drives GOP Resistance to Vaccines?
Eight in 10 Democrats have at least one dose, compared with about half of Republicans.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
I wrote this comment:
What Drives GOP Resistance to Vaccines?
That's easy. About half of Republicans are not too bright.
Monday, June 7, 2021
Most Republicans are stupid fucking assholes.
New York Times
Republicans are leaning into Donald Trump’s lie that he won the 2020 election.
Across the country, a group of Republican challengers are running on the “Stop the Steal” fallacy, touted by protesters above. If elected, they would bring the G.O.P.’s assault on the legitimacy of elections — a bedrock of American democracy — to Congress.
But it might not work. In Arizona, an extravagantly flawed “audit” of the swing state’s election is alienating some Republicans. Polls say it will hurt the G.O.P. in 2022. Still, state party leaders continue the count.
And Trump plans to resume regular rallies this summer. That will help him spread his message, but despite social media bans and his blog’s low-readership, loyal supporters still pushed Trump’s words out on their feeds.
Republicans are leaning into Donald Trump’s lie that he won the 2020 election.
Across the country, a group of Republican challengers are running on the “Stop the Steal” fallacy, touted by protesters above. If elected, they would bring the G.O.P.’s assault on the legitimacy of elections — a bedrock of American democracy — to Congress.
But it might not work. In Arizona, an extravagantly flawed “audit” of the swing state’s election is alienating some Republicans. Polls say it will hurt the G.O.P. in 2022. Still, state party leaders continue the count.
And Trump plans to resume regular rallies this summer. That will help him spread his message, but despite social media bans and his blog’s low-readership, loyal supporters still pushed Trump’s words out on their feeds.
Friday, May 21, 2021
The United States has a Bill of Rights which includes keeping church and state completely separate. But Fucktard Texas has thrown out our constitution so they can force school children to suck up to the Magic Man. What a bunch of stupid fucking assholes.
I found this at the New York Times:
“I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God.”
That’s how schoolchildren in Texas start their day, every morning.
“I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God.”
That’s how schoolchildren in Texas start their day, every morning.
Thursday, May 20, 2021
The New York Times. More stuff about the coronavirus and vaccines.
 May 20, 2021 |
An informed guide to the pandemic, with the latest developments and expert advice about prevention and treatment. |
(Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.) |
|
|
When doses come to you |
Demand for vaccines in the U.S. is dwindling. The country is inoculating an average of about 1.8 million people a day, down from about 3.3 million in mid-April. |
Part of the problem is access. Some people are encumbered by jobs or the responsibility of child care. Others struggle with dire poverty. Many are adrift, out of reach or uninformed. |
So, across the country, health officials are taking vaccines on the road, sometimes even to potential patients’ doorsteps. |
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In Sussex County, Del., many residents live in poverty, making them more vulnerable to the virus. But a trip to a doctor or a vaccination appointment may require navigating irregular bus routes or losing a day’s wages. |
In April, teams from Beebe Healthcare and local partners added workstations to a bus that had been used as a mobile library. Workers, who are able to vaccinate 50 people in several hours, listen and dispel misinformation — in English, Spanish and Creole. |
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In New York City, Black and Hispanic residents are being vaccinated at significantly lower rates than other groups are. Now, public health officials there are reaching out to unvaccinated residents. Community groups are knocking on doors to persuade people to be inoculated, and in some cases those who agree get appointments for doses in a temporary clinic nearby. |
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To reach homeless people in Washington State, officials have set up a clinic on wheels in Pioneer Square in Seattle. Thomas Dunlap noticed the mobile clinic by chance and accepted an inoculation with relief. As did Michael Clinger, another homeless man, who said he was “sick of wearing a mask.” |
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In rural areas, lack of access to technology and transportation during the pandemic has defined the potential for life, death or debilitating illness. |
In Minnesota, the state health department and other partners transformed six city buses into clinics. Seats were removed and vaccination stations were installed. Personal protective equipment, canopies, tents and snacks have been stowed aboard. Up to eight people ride along, vaccinating 10 to 180 people at one event. |
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Emily Smoak, a health department planner, said the mobile clinic teams aimed to build trust and curb the impact of the virus on communities. |
“We are showing up in communities and telling people: ‘You do matter. We are not just going to leave you out of the greater process,’” Smoak said. |
Vaccination campaigns in Asia |
Two of China’s neighbors have enacted divergent vaccination campaigns, and their disparate results show the value of a muscular rollout. |
Early in the pandemic, Taiwan shut its borders and required quarantines of nearly everyone who arrived from overseas, mostly shielding itself from the worst of the virus. But that has recently changed after enough infections have slipped by to cause localized outbreaks. |
The country has reported 200 to 350 new infections a day for the past several days, after recording just 1,290 from the beginning of the pandemic until Saturday. Amplifying the concerns is the country’s slow vaccination campaign. Only about 1 percent of the island’s 23.5 million residents have been vaccinated. Scenes from the country now look like those from the early days of the pandemic, with businesses shuttered and lines around the block at testing sites. Experts say the slow pace of vaccination and more transmissible virus variants created a perfect window for a flare-up. |
Mongolia, on the other hand, used its status as a small geopolitical player between Russia and China to strike deals with both countries to acquire enough doses to vaccinate its entire adult population. It’s a big victory for a low-income nation, which snapped up doses with a swiftness similar to the pace of much wealthier countries despite being late to the global rush for vaccines. |
The country has been facing a forceful outbreak that began in March, but cases have been dropping during the past month, and officials are so confident about the nation’s vaccine riches that they are promising citizens a “Covid-free summer.” |
Vaccine rollout |
|
Thank you for your support. Want to share The New York Times? Friends and family can enjoy unlimited digital access to our journalism with this special offer. |
What else we’re following |
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What you’re doing |
Walking while unmasked — Melissa Ray, Oakland, Calif. |
I have a subscription to "The Atlantic" but I almost never look at it because it's usually boring. This one is about Fucktard Trump and stupidity of the Republican Party.
At the beginning of last week, former President Donald Trump referred to the 2020 election as the “greatest Election Fraud in the history of our Country.” By the end of the week, he had issued a statement saying, “As our Country is being destroyed, both inside and out, the Presidential Election of 2020 will go down as THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY!”
What else is new? These are the ravings of a 74-year-old sociopath, isolated and banned from social media, living in Mar-a-Lago, where he is crashing wedding parties and delivering rambling monologues.
Or at least, that would be the right way to look at things, if not for the fact that the GOP remains fully in Trump’s thrall, with its leadership more committed than ever to spreading his foundational lies and conspiracy theories. Under Trump’s sway, the Republican Party is becoming more fanatical, venturing even further into a world of illusion.
The rest of it is at "Trump Is Marching Down the Road to Political Violence".
What else is new? These are the ravings of a 74-year-old sociopath, isolated and banned from social media, living in Mar-a-Lago, where he is crashing wedding parties and delivering rambling monologues.
Or at least, that would be the right way to look at things, if not for the fact that the GOP remains fully in Trump’s thrall, with its leadership more committed than ever to spreading his foundational lies and conspiracy theories. Under Trump’s sway, the Republican Party is becoming more fanatical, venturing even further into a world of illusion.
The rest of it is at "Trump Is Marching Down the Road to Political Violence".
Wednesday, May 19, 2021
The Wall Street Journal. "Supreme Court to Review Mississippi Law Limiting Abortion Rights." I agree with the comment someone wrote.
This obsession with abortion and other theocratic aspects of the conservative platform is what prevents many of us economic conservatives and fiscal conservatives from voting Republican. You either believe in freedom and liberty or you do not. If you don't like abortions, then don't have one. Kind of like, say, vegetarianism . . . if you don't like meat or have a moral problem with meat, then don't eat meat.
Tuesday, May 18, 2021
Here is more evidence for the idea that Republicans are stupid.
The Washington Post
‘I’m still a zero’: Vaccine-resistant Republicans warn that their skepticism is worsening.
By Dan Diamond
April 20, 2021
Stop talking about the possibility of coronavirus booster shots. Don’t bully people who are vaccine holdouts. And if you’re trying to win over skeptics, show us anyone besides Dr. Fauci.
That’s what a focus group of vaccine-hesitant Trump voters urged politicians and pollsters during the weekend, as public health officials work to understand potential roadblocks in the campaign to inoculate Americans against the coronavirus. Among the most pressing questions are why so many GOP voters remain opposed to the shots and whether the recent decision to pause Johnson & Johnson vaccinations was a factor.
Although more than half of U.S. adults have received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine, more than 40 percent of Republicans have consistently told pollsters they’re not planning to be vaccinated — a group that could threaten efforts to tamp down the virus’s spread, public health officials fear.
Many vaccine-hesitant Americans are increasingly entrenched in their decisions to resist the shots, said Frank Luntz, a longtime GOP communications expert who convened Sunday’s focus group over Zoom.
“The further we go into the vaccination process, the more passionate the hesitancy is,” Luntz said after the session. “If you’ve refused to take the vaccine this long, it’s going to be hard to switch you.”
That was the case in the weekend’s focus group, the latest in a series Luntz has convened. It included 17 participants who heard pro-vaccine pitches from four doctors, including three Republican politicians and Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the Obama administration.
Unlike a similar focus group five weeks ago, when most participants told Luntz and Frieden that the session persuaded them to get shots, attendees Sunday said they were swayed only moderately by doctors’ urging — or not moved at all.
“I was zero [on] the vaccine. I’m still a zero,” said a woman identified as Tammy from Virginia about an hour into Sunday’s focus group. Her comments came after Frieden repeatedly tried to calm attendees’ fears, which included questions about the vaccines’ unknown long-term effects and about baseless claims suggesting the shots would change recipients’ DNA even though that does not happen. Focus group attendees were identified only by their first name and state, although many participants volunteered additional biographical details.
While cautioning against drawing too many conclusions from a single focus group, public health experts said the nearly two-hour session offered insight on messages that could reach holdout Americans — and which messages didn’t.
For instance, the group largely shrugged off federal regulators’ decision last week to pause Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine for safety reviews, citing the risk of rare blood clots. Luntz and others had expected the pause to worsen hesitancy, but focus group participants instead asked why doctors were halting a potentially useful medical treatment, given that the reported side effects were so rare.
“A lot of people might want to take the Johnson & Johnson vaccine versus the others, because it’s one shot versus two,” said a woman identified as Cathy from Pennsylvania.
Brian Castrucci, an epidemiologist who leads the de Beaumont Foundation, which helped convene the focus group, said: “Every public health person, me included, thought this would be a real hit to vaccine confidence. But we didn’t see folks really concerned with the pause in the J&J vaccine.”
The foundation, which focuses on community public health, also issued a poll Tuesday with Luntz that found most Americans thought the Johnson & Johnson pause shows that safety protocols are working. A federal advisory committee this week is expected to determine whether medical officials can resume administering the vaccine.
Instead, the focus group participants said they were far more concerned by recent news that they may need ongoing shots to ward off the coronavirus. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told CNBC this month that Americans who received his company’s two-dose vaccine regimen probably will need a third shot within a year.
“I feel like this is not going to end. I mean, we’re just going to be shot up and shot up and shot up,” said a man identified as Erzen from New York. “We can’t live like this. This is not sustainable.”
Public health experts have said it is premature to assume Americans will need booster shots in the coming year, and Frieden framed Bourla’s claims as a business decision.
“I’m pissed off at Pfizer for talking about boosters. And I think they did that for their corporate benefit,” he told the group. Attendees later said that they appreciated Frieden’s blunt rhetoric.
Pfizer defended Bourla’s comments in a statement to The Washington Post, noting the company has repeatedly discussed the possibility of booster shots.
“Until we see a reduction in SARS-CoV-2 circulation and covid-19 disease, we think it is likely that a third dose, a boost of our vaccine, within 12 months after vaccine administration, will likely be needed to help provide protection against covid-19, subject to approval by regulatory authorities,” Pfizer spokeswoman Jerica Pitts said.
Castrucci said he had not expected Pfizer’s booster shot discussions to catalyze so much resistance.
“That’s the beauty of focus groups. You get to see the harbinger of things to come,” he said, arguing that participants’ concerns about a booster shot illustrated how coronavirus-weary Americans needed to know there would be an end to the pandemic.
The focus group revealed another unexpected development: Most participants said they would want a fake vaccination card that would allow them to claim they had received shots, after Luntz granted them anonymity to speak honestly.
“One-thousand percent,” one woman said.
“If I have a fake vaccine card, yeah, I can go anywhere,” added a man who said he had turned down free New York Yankees tickets because of the team’s requirement to show proof of vaccination to attend games. Other participants said they wanted a fake card to attend concerts and go on trips, citing the growing number of organizations saying they will require proof of shots.
Even some participants who said they did not intend to get a fraudulent card acknowledged they were tempted. “My faith wouldn’t allow me to be deceitful. So what do I do?” one woman asked the group.
Federal officials have condemned the rising use of fake vaccination cards, warning that the scams are illegal and that they will prosecute Americans who make, sell or use the easily falsified cards. The use of fake cards could prolong the pandemic by allowing unvaccinated people to continue to spread the virus, officials have said.
'Ripe for fraud': Coronavirus vaccination cards support burgeoning scams
Several Republican politicians took turns pitching Sunday’s focus group to get shots, often with politically tinged rhetoric.
Sen. Roger Marshall (Kan.), an obstetrician, exhorted the Trump voters to get vaccinated out of respect for their former president.
“President [Donald] Trump busted his butt to get this vaccine for us. He kicked down doors that I’ve never seen kicked down before,” Marshall said. “And I think to respect him, would you take the vaccine? Would you honor it out of respect for him and his efforts and everything he did to get this country through this crisis?”
The senator's pitch fell flat with some attendees.
“I’m very thankful to Donald Trump, but all his efforts to make it happen don’t have anything to do with its continued or long-term efficacy,” said a man named Allen from Georgia.
Others said they agreed that Trump should be receiving more plaudits — and that the shots should even be called the “Trump vaccine” — but that alone didn’t appear to change their opinion.
Luntz said Trump bears responsibility for the tens of millions of hesitant GOP voters, having used his presidential podium to make political attacks while missing opportunities to promote vaccines to his political base.
“He wants to get the credit for developing the vaccine. Then he also gets the blame for so few of his voters taking it,” Luntz said in an interview. The longtime GOP pollster added that President Biden could be doing more to cross the aisle, such as making a joint appearance with Trump to tout the vaccines before promptly deferring to medical experts.
One figure was roundly panned at the focus group: Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Every participant said they preferred hearing from politicians over the medical expert, who has been pilloried by conservative media for months over his coronavirus warnings.
“The data have shown that unfortunately Dr. Fauci has been politicized, and we need different messengers because even the right messages coming from the wrong messengers aren’t always helpful,” Castrucci said, noting his foundation’s polling found Americans trust their personal doctors more than the government’s top infectious-disease doctor.
Other complaints reflected opinions from previous focus groups and surveys, such as criticism of “vaccine passports” — documents that could be used to demonstrate proof of vaccination but have become swiftly politicized — and interventions characterized as overreach.
“I work for a university, and they’re really pressuring employees to take this vaccine, and they don’t pressure us near this hard for a flu shot each year,” a man identified as Michael from Iowa said.
Many participants blasted a media environment that they said was relentlessly negative.
“A lot of the hesitancy that’s coming from the right is just from being bullied, being humiliated, basically, by the media,” said a woman who identified herself as Leslie from California, who was one of the younger members of the group. “I don’t really see the point in getting it if nothing is going to change, and I haven’t gotten sick.”
Luntz said he would be closely watching Biden’s prime-time address to Congress next week as a major opportunity to win over vaccine skeptics, particularly in communities of color. “Everything else he says is platitudes. What he says about covid can save lives,” the pollster said, arguing that Biden’s current popularity made him more effective than many politicians.
Given that vaccine-hesitant voters said their decisions were influenced by their personal doctors, Castrucci argued that all physicians could incorporate subtle questions about coronavirus vaccinations into their medical routines. That would hark back to successful anti-tobacco campaigns in which doctors routinely asked patients about their tobacco use.
Meanwhile, Castrucci warned that some Democrats’ hectoring and ridicule of GOP vaccine holdouts had backfired, adding that it was wrong to argue with vaccine skeptics like a political debate: “If we don’t get this country vaccinated, it’s not a debate because there’s no winner, and we all lose.”
‘I’m still a zero’: Vaccine-resistant Republicans warn that their skepticism is worsening.
By Dan Diamond
April 20, 2021
Stop talking about the possibility of coronavirus booster shots. Don’t bully people who are vaccine holdouts. And if you’re trying to win over skeptics, show us anyone besides Dr. Fauci.
That’s what a focus group of vaccine-hesitant Trump voters urged politicians and pollsters during the weekend, as public health officials work to understand potential roadblocks in the campaign to inoculate Americans against the coronavirus. Among the most pressing questions are why so many GOP voters remain opposed to the shots and whether the recent decision to pause Johnson & Johnson vaccinations was a factor.
Although more than half of U.S. adults have received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine, more than 40 percent of Republicans have consistently told pollsters they’re not planning to be vaccinated — a group that could threaten efforts to tamp down the virus’s spread, public health officials fear.
Many vaccine-hesitant Americans are increasingly entrenched in their decisions to resist the shots, said Frank Luntz, a longtime GOP communications expert who convened Sunday’s focus group over Zoom.
“The further we go into the vaccination process, the more passionate the hesitancy is,” Luntz said after the session. “If you’ve refused to take the vaccine this long, it’s going to be hard to switch you.”
That was the case in the weekend’s focus group, the latest in a series Luntz has convened. It included 17 participants who heard pro-vaccine pitches from four doctors, including three Republican politicians and Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the Obama administration.
Unlike a similar focus group five weeks ago, when most participants told Luntz and Frieden that the session persuaded them to get shots, attendees Sunday said they were swayed only moderately by doctors’ urging — or not moved at all.
“I was zero [on] the vaccine. I’m still a zero,” said a woman identified as Tammy from Virginia about an hour into Sunday’s focus group. Her comments came after Frieden repeatedly tried to calm attendees’ fears, which included questions about the vaccines’ unknown long-term effects and about baseless claims suggesting the shots would change recipients’ DNA even though that does not happen. Focus group attendees were identified only by their first name and state, although many participants volunteered additional biographical details.
While cautioning against drawing too many conclusions from a single focus group, public health experts said the nearly two-hour session offered insight on messages that could reach holdout Americans — and which messages didn’t.
For instance, the group largely shrugged off federal regulators’ decision last week to pause Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine for safety reviews, citing the risk of rare blood clots. Luntz and others had expected the pause to worsen hesitancy, but focus group participants instead asked why doctors were halting a potentially useful medical treatment, given that the reported side effects were so rare.
“A lot of people might want to take the Johnson & Johnson vaccine versus the others, because it’s one shot versus two,” said a woman identified as Cathy from Pennsylvania.
Brian Castrucci, an epidemiologist who leads the de Beaumont Foundation, which helped convene the focus group, said: “Every public health person, me included, thought this would be a real hit to vaccine confidence. But we didn’t see folks really concerned with the pause in the J&J vaccine.”
The foundation, which focuses on community public health, also issued a poll Tuesday with Luntz that found most Americans thought the Johnson & Johnson pause shows that safety protocols are working. A federal advisory committee this week is expected to determine whether medical officials can resume administering the vaccine.
Instead, the focus group participants said they were far more concerned by recent news that they may need ongoing shots to ward off the coronavirus. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told CNBC this month that Americans who received his company’s two-dose vaccine regimen probably will need a third shot within a year.
“I feel like this is not going to end. I mean, we’re just going to be shot up and shot up and shot up,” said a man identified as Erzen from New York. “We can’t live like this. This is not sustainable.”
Public health experts have said it is premature to assume Americans will need booster shots in the coming year, and Frieden framed Bourla’s claims as a business decision.
“I’m pissed off at Pfizer for talking about boosters. And I think they did that for their corporate benefit,” he told the group. Attendees later said that they appreciated Frieden’s blunt rhetoric.
Pfizer defended Bourla’s comments in a statement to The Washington Post, noting the company has repeatedly discussed the possibility of booster shots.
“Until we see a reduction in SARS-CoV-2 circulation and covid-19 disease, we think it is likely that a third dose, a boost of our vaccine, within 12 months after vaccine administration, will likely be needed to help provide protection against covid-19, subject to approval by regulatory authorities,” Pfizer spokeswoman Jerica Pitts said.
Castrucci said he had not expected Pfizer’s booster shot discussions to catalyze so much resistance.
“That’s the beauty of focus groups. You get to see the harbinger of things to come,” he said, arguing that participants’ concerns about a booster shot illustrated how coronavirus-weary Americans needed to know there would be an end to the pandemic.
The focus group revealed another unexpected development: Most participants said they would want a fake vaccination card that would allow them to claim they had received shots, after Luntz granted them anonymity to speak honestly.
“One-thousand percent,” one woman said.
“If I have a fake vaccine card, yeah, I can go anywhere,” added a man who said he had turned down free New York Yankees tickets because of the team’s requirement to show proof of vaccination to attend games. Other participants said they wanted a fake card to attend concerts and go on trips, citing the growing number of organizations saying they will require proof of shots.
Even some participants who said they did not intend to get a fraudulent card acknowledged they were tempted. “My faith wouldn’t allow me to be deceitful. So what do I do?” one woman asked the group.
Federal officials have condemned the rising use of fake vaccination cards, warning that the scams are illegal and that they will prosecute Americans who make, sell or use the easily falsified cards. The use of fake cards could prolong the pandemic by allowing unvaccinated people to continue to spread the virus, officials have said.
'Ripe for fraud': Coronavirus vaccination cards support burgeoning scams
Several Republican politicians took turns pitching Sunday’s focus group to get shots, often with politically tinged rhetoric.
Sen. Roger Marshall (Kan.), an obstetrician, exhorted the Trump voters to get vaccinated out of respect for their former president.
“President [Donald] Trump busted his butt to get this vaccine for us. He kicked down doors that I’ve never seen kicked down before,” Marshall said. “And I think to respect him, would you take the vaccine? Would you honor it out of respect for him and his efforts and everything he did to get this country through this crisis?”
The senator's pitch fell flat with some attendees.
“I’m very thankful to Donald Trump, but all his efforts to make it happen don’t have anything to do with its continued or long-term efficacy,” said a man named Allen from Georgia.
Others said they agreed that Trump should be receiving more plaudits — and that the shots should even be called the “Trump vaccine” — but that alone didn’t appear to change their opinion.
Luntz said Trump bears responsibility for the tens of millions of hesitant GOP voters, having used his presidential podium to make political attacks while missing opportunities to promote vaccines to his political base.
“He wants to get the credit for developing the vaccine. Then he also gets the blame for so few of his voters taking it,” Luntz said in an interview. The longtime GOP pollster added that President Biden could be doing more to cross the aisle, such as making a joint appearance with Trump to tout the vaccines before promptly deferring to medical experts.
One figure was roundly panned at the focus group: Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Every participant said they preferred hearing from politicians over the medical expert, who has been pilloried by conservative media for months over his coronavirus warnings.
“The data have shown that unfortunately Dr. Fauci has been politicized, and we need different messengers because even the right messages coming from the wrong messengers aren’t always helpful,” Castrucci said, noting his foundation’s polling found Americans trust their personal doctors more than the government’s top infectious-disease doctor.
Other complaints reflected opinions from previous focus groups and surveys, such as criticism of “vaccine passports” — documents that could be used to demonstrate proof of vaccination but have become swiftly politicized — and interventions characterized as overreach.
“I work for a university, and they’re really pressuring employees to take this vaccine, and they don’t pressure us near this hard for a flu shot each year,” a man identified as Michael from Iowa said.
Many participants blasted a media environment that they said was relentlessly negative.
“A lot of the hesitancy that’s coming from the right is just from being bullied, being humiliated, basically, by the media,” said a woman who identified herself as Leslie from California, who was one of the younger members of the group. “I don’t really see the point in getting it if nothing is going to change, and I haven’t gotten sick.”
Luntz said he would be closely watching Biden’s prime-time address to Congress next week as a major opportunity to win over vaccine skeptics, particularly in communities of color. “Everything else he says is platitudes. What he says about covid can save lives,” the pollster said, arguing that Biden’s current popularity made him more effective than many politicians.
Given that vaccine-hesitant voters said their decisions were influenced by their personal doctors, Castrucci argued that all physicians could incorporate subtle questions about coronavirus vaccinations into their medical routines. That would hark back to successful anti-tobacco campaigns in which doctors routinely asked patients about their tobacco use.
Meanwhile, Castrucci warned that some Democrats’ hectoring and ridicule of GOP vaccine holdouts had backfired, adding that it was wrong to argue with vaccine skeptics like a political debate: “If we don’t get this country vaccinated, it’s not a debate because there’s no winner, and we all lose.”
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