Reason # 71: Anti-Vaxxers
Why do we need to defeat Donald Trump and ensure that a Democrat occupies the White House?
When Joseph Biden won the presidential election and was set to be inaugurated on January 20, 2021, he faced a terrible crisis. No, I do not refer to the terrible insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
It took almost 300 days in 2020 for the first ten million COVID infections to occur. The second ten million infections were tabulated in only 54 days. The pandemic was accelerating. By mid-January we were recording a million new cases – every four days! 400,000 Americans had died. COVID was rampaging. 38 capitol police were diagnosed with COVID after their close encounter with the Trump mob.
Biden was served a pig’s breakfast on his first day in office.
There were 100,000 new COVID deaths during the following month!
And the numbers of infections and deaths were probably seriously underestimated. Total deaths may have been as high as 900.000 with 35% of the population infected.
In these dire circumstances, Joseph Biden announced his plan to immunize 100 million Americans. The first doses had been injected only on December 14, 2020. In an astonishing feat, this herculean task was accomplished by March 19, 2021. I still remember vividly driving our car through an endless series of loops in the parking lot at Dodger’s Stadium to get COVID vaccination out of the car windows, from nurses working with Sean Penn’s fabulous CORE organization.
Finally, we had some modicum of safety.
By August 2021, 70% of the population had at least one COVID shot,
Infection rates had fallen by as much as 90% by July, but not in states where vaccination rates were low, and there was a new problem, among the many million infected, multiple new viral variants had arisen. Booster shots would be required.
Why were vaccination rates lower in some areas? One surprising determinant was political affiliation. Poll results showed 86% of Democrats having at least one COVID shot; the comparable number among Republicans was only 45%, disproportionately white, conservative, Evangelical Christians in rural areas remaining aloof. Of 18 states that reached the target of 70% vaccination, all had voted for Biden. This disparity reflected a growing anti-vaccination and misinformation stance adopted by Republican leaders and a vigorous pushback to attempts to mandate vaccination in certain settings e.g. healthcare workers, the military and school children. President Biden accused Facebook of killing people by allowing dissemination of misinformation. 44% of Republicans believed a rumor that Bill Gates wanted to inject microchips in COVID vaccines. You just can’t make up this stuff. Wait, they just did!
https://www.bbc.com/news/54893437id
Did DJT play a role in vaccine denial? He and Melania were vaccinated before leaving the White House, with no public announcement made. A year later he was booed when he announced that he had received a booster shot. He has said that Operation Warp Speed was a great accomplishment but that he is not allowed to take credit because Republicans don’t want to talk about vaccination. More recently he is following the anti-vaxx lead and has vowed multiple times not to provide funding to schools that mandate COVID and other vaccination programs.
This appears to show that Republican crazy is not always led by Donald Trump; sometimes he just panders to the loonies. In 2023, 43 anti-vaccine laws were enacted in the U.S., almost all in red states. The latest development is his alliance with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a fanatic vaccination opponent and prolific purveyor of misinformation.
More than one million Americans have died of COVID 19. Deaths were concentrated in red states and in districts won by Trump in 2020.
The vaccination program has been credited with preventing as many as 3.2 million deaths.
Have a heart; use your mind, search your conscience, and vote for Democratic candidates – across the ballot – on November. 5th.
Can you seriously be thinking about voting for a man who cares more about your ballot than your life?
Please share this message with your friends and please, add your thoughts, to expand upon what are only brief sketches here.
To date, I have written 71 Reasons NOT to vote for Donald Trump. They are archived at my Facebook page
“100 Reasons NOT to vote for Donald Trump”. Please visit and share the URL with your friends and colleagues.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61565843924438
Why have I committed to posting 100 Reasons NOT to vote for Donald Trump? Because I do not have time to post 10,000.
Fred Grannis
October 1, 2024