GOP Leaders’ Silence Is Putting Their Voters at Risk and Actively Hurting America’s Effort to Put an End to the Pandemic
Republican voters continue expressing hesitancy about getting the coronavirus vaccine. This hesitancy is due in large part to Republican lawmakers and leaders like former President Trump, Mitch McConnell and others who have not done enough to encourage Republican voters to get vaccinated. Some GOP Senators are even out-right refusing to take the vaccine.
We are now seeing the consequences of this inaction, as GOP-led states consistently lag on vaccinations and polling shows Republican men in particular are hesitant about getting the vaccine and opposed to basic public health measures like mask wearing.
In response to Republican leaders’ continued inaction to promote the vaccine among their own voters, Protect Our Care’s Coronavirus War Room Spokesperson Michael Feldman issued the following statement:
“After a year of the previous administration’s efforts to undermine public health experts and ignore science, Republican leaders have a responsibility to educate their constituents, particularly reluctant voters in their own party, that the vaccine is safe, effective and the best tool we have to end this pandemic.
“Despite most of their own party’s leadership taking the vaccine, Republicans like Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy have simply failed to do enough to educate their voters about its benefits or encourage them to follow basic public health guidelines.
“If Republicans were serious about putting an end to this pandemic they would join President Biden and Democrats to put forward a united message that encourages all voters, regardless of party to get the vaccine so that we can finally put an end to this pandemic.”
Read more here from the Associated Press about GOP voters’ vaccine skepticism:
Vaccination Rates Are Deeply Divided Between Red And Blue States, With Red States Struggling To Get Shots In Arms. “Meanwhile, at the bottom are five states where fewer than 40 percent have rolled up their sleeves for a shot. Four of them — Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee — lean Republican and voted for Donald Trump last fall. The fifth is Georgia, which has a Republican governor and supported GOP presidential candidates for nearly three decades before narrowly backing Biden. The emerging pattern: Americans in so-called ‘blue states’ that lean Democratic appear to be getting vaccinated at more robust rates, while those in ‘red’ Republican states seem to be more hesitant.” [Associated Press, 4/14/21]
Dr. Howard Forman, Professor Of Public Health And Management At Yale School Of Medicine, Said That As Conservative Voters Resist COVID-19 Vaccines, “We Could See Substantial Outbreaks For A Long Time.” “‘We can draw a conclusion that red states and voters that voted for Trump are going to be more difficult to vaccinate because we have real good survey data to support that,’ said Dr. Howard Forman, a professor of public health and management at the Yale School of Medicine…’We could see substantial outbreaks for a long time,’ Forman said. ‘It will determine whether we go back to normal in some cases.’” [Associated Press, 4/14/21]
Nearly Four In 10 Republicans Reported They Will Probably Or Definitely Not Get Vaccinated, According To A Late March 2021 Associated Press-NORC Center For Public Affairs Research Poll. “A poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research in late March found that 36 percent of Republicans said they will probably or definitely not get vaccinated, compared with 12 percent of Democrats. Similarly, a third of rural Americans said they were leaning against getting shots, while fewer than a fourth of people living in cities and suburbs shared that hesitancy.” [Associated Press, 4/14/21]