Why is the Republican Party sponsoring a program of discouraging vaccinations against a deadly virus?
We will never know because Republicans on this forum never discuss what their party is doing.
In any case, the program is successful. Republican-led states rank at the bottom of vaccination rates, and Republicans cheered when Biden didn't reach his goal of 70% which involved a plan to save American lives.
99.5 percent of all covid-19-related deaths in the United States occur among unvaccinated people -- the bulk of those deaths occurring in Republican-led states.
Michael Gerson writes, "The recent
outbreak of applause at the Conservative Political Action Conference for the United States’ failure to meet its vaccination target was macabre."
The Tennessean reports, "The Tennessee Department of Health will halt all adolescent vaccine outreach – not just for coronavirus, but all diseases –
amid pressure from Republican state lawmakers, according to an internal report and agency emails
.
"The health department will also stop all COVID-19 vaccine events on school property
. These changes to Tennessee’s vaccination strategy illustrate how the state government continues to dial back efforts to vaccinate minors against coronavirus."
The Tennessee Department of Health
fired Dr. Michelle Fiscus, the top vaccine official in the Tennessee state government becuase of her
efforts to vaccinate teenagers.
Why? Ignorance. Apparently, the Republican Party attracts the ignorant. If there is another explanation, I would love to hear it.
Gerson offers this. "Some people are just badly misinformed. They think the vaccines come with itsy-bitsy tracking chips, or
make you magnetic, or render you infertile. Ignorance is a form of moral mitigation, but it is still, well, ignorance.
"Some oppose vaccination out of a tragically misapplied libertarianism. They somehow think the defense of freedom requires the rejection of sound medical advice from the government. They seek liberation from rational rules, prudent precautions, scientific reality and from moral responsibility for their neighbors’ well-being [and their children]. This is the degraded version of a proud tradition
: Live free and let someone else die."
Gerson adds, "In the case of Fox News celebrities in particular, they must know that discouraging vaccination — by exaggerating risks, highlighting unproven alternative therapies and normalizing anti-vaccine voices — will result in additional, unnecessary deaths."
For rational Americans -- presumably this would exclude most Republicans -- all of this makes no sense. Will encouraging the spread of a deadly virus win votes in Republican states? Is that possible?
We will never know the answer. Republicans remain silent on the issue almost like they know they are acting stupid but do it anyway. They are so pathetic they can't even defend themselves.
