August 21, 2021
The GOP has a vaccine problem. Whether fairly or unfairly, the media is hammering the GOP for being anti-vax and anti-mask. Republicans will reply that they are not anti-vax, just pro-choice. Nonetheless, the media is relentlessly portraying the GOP as anti-vax, and that perception is beginning to take hold.
Consider that on just a single day (August 21, 2021) I saw no fewer than four big headlines about four different GOP people associated with opposition to vaccines or masks who died of Covid (in one case a wife):
This last article contains the following:
In the GOP circles where Apley was well known, however, there was little mention of covid-19 or how to prevent it. Two days after mourning their former vice chairman in a Facebook post that did not say what put him on a ventilator, the Galveston County Republican Party shared a far-right website’s medical-evidence-free claim that immunization against the coronavirus had killed a young conservative activist. “Another tragedy – From the Vaccine!!!!!” they warned.
I find this concentration of anti-vax sentiment in the GOP to be rather odd. Vaccines were originally presented as an alternative to all the lifestyle changes that so many Republicans hate. Vaccines were the magic bullet when bleach didn’t pan out.
The GOP has become a Donald Trump personality cult, where mere criticism of Trump’s behavior caused even a hard core Republican like Liz Cheney to be excommunicated and replaced by a New York moderate who opposed the border wall and voted against Trump’s tax cuts. But on the issue of vaccines, no one listens to (pro-vax) Trump. It’s an almost perfect example of the nature of a personality cult. Republicans could not care less what Trump thinks about vaccines; all that matters is that members of the tribe must be personally loyal to Trump.
Tags:
22. August 2021 at 09:43
“Vaccines were the magic bullet when bleach didn’t pan out.”
And Scott claims *I* make dumb comments…
22. August 2021 at 10:04
“And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning, because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that, so that you’re going to have to use medical doctors with, but it sounds interesting to me.”…
Still an all time great… I almost died laughing that day.
22. August 2021 at 10:05
For a fake news hoax that will be over by Easter 2020, it really does a number on the lungs. I mean, maybe spraying down the lungs with bleach could work… who knows… better check that one out. Hahahaha
22. August 2021 at 10:19
And right on cue, Trump booed for advocating vaccines:
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-booed-alabama-rally-after-encouraging-crowd-get-covid-19-vaccine-1621811
Scott, how does that align with the GOP being a personality cult? Cult leaders aren’t usually booed by their followers. It seems that there is something more at work. There is some way of thinking or feeling that Trump embodies. And when Trump veers away from that way of thinking/feeling, the followers rebel. (Sample size of n = 1)
22. August 2021 at 10:58
Travis, You asked:
“Scott, how does that align with the GOP being a personality cult?”
It’s loyalty to the person, not the political positions. Voters don’t vote for the candidate with Trumpian ideas (Sessions, etc.) they vote for the guy endorsed by Trump.
22. August 2021 at 11:43
I think we need to think in terms of the paradigm of animal spirits and no longer in terms of the paradigm personality cult (and obviously we have gone far from pure tribalism or rational self interest).
Basically, various factors including tribalism and a Trump personality cult (And rational self interest in some cases) and driven extreme volatility in the political sphere (or political markets) leading to a dominance by psychological and emotional factors rather than rational self interest (or even tribalism and personality cult).
22. August 2021 at 12:00
You somehow equate not wanting to take the vaccine, to that person must be “anti-vax”. Not logical!
And you still refuse to recognize the hard data.
The hard data shows that the vaccine reduces t-cells. It shows that vaccinated people aged 16-29 are at greater risk of heart attack (Israel study). One real world study, conducted by Dr. Zelenko shows an 84% decrease in hospitalizations by taking Zinc, hydroxychloroquine, and azithromycin. Why wasn’t that approved? Does it have something to do with a law that states pharmaceutical companies are prohibited from receiving FDA approval for new products if a sufficient product already exists?
There have been a number of vaccine related deaths, break through cases, issues around efficacy, long term side effects, etc, etc.
This is not a vaccine that went through ten years of trials. And you are choosing to ignore, for political purposes, data that conflicts with your desired outcome. That is not honest intellectualism, it’s partisan quackery.
Yes, people can die from Covid. Who cares about a republican official and their wife dying. That is not your decision, nor is it your problem. That was their decision, and their problem. They might have made that decision for a number of reasons – maybe it was the fact that COVID has a mortality rate of 1%. Maybe its because they have a heart condition and were worried about inflammation, a common side effect of the vaccine. Maybe they were more concerned about blood clots.
It’s not up to apparatchiks, and arrogant fools like Sumner, to make health decisions for them. You clamor for “my body my choice” when it comes to infanticide, but when an adult makes a “my body my choice” about a vaccine, your tyrannical arrogance seems to want to make that decision for them.
It’s called “power hungry”.
22. August 2021 at 12:10
@Scott, it might be loyalty to the person, but then why was Trump himself getting booed? That seems like a piece of evidence that needs to be accounted for by the personality cult hypothesis. I doubt Hitler ever got booed by his followers 😉
Perhaps it’s not Trump’s policy ideas that inspire loyalty but his attitudinal stances. Perhaps his followers want a type of attitude that involves a thumbing of the nose at experts that tell people what to do, an approach that doesn’t privilege specific people to lord it over others.
22. August 2021 at 12:15
Jonathan’s comment makes me wonder if the separation between Trump the man and Trump the myth is getting stronger. The analogy that I like to draw with the People’s Temple feels too simple now. The Republicans were waiting for a Trump-like figure and his eventual death will only strengthen a core of the most fervent and pure—who will eventually rally around the next Leader. I bet some “true Trumpers” would be willing to sacrifice Trump just like Sean Connery’s character was sacrificed in The Man Who Would be King.
One symbol of purity in the cult is denial of harm or death that can be caused by the virus. This logically leads to the embrace of alternate, quack remedies that are distinct from the vaccines.
22. August 2021 at 12:20
I love the timing if this partisan article because fully vaxxed Jesse Jackson – the radical liberal – has been hospitalized today for Covid.
Meanwhile, a Harvard/MIT study says mRNA might come with long term autoimmune disorders.
As we have stated 1000 times to Sumner, if you want to rush into taking the vaccine – go ahead. But the rest of us want a bit more data before we make that decision.
Most trials last a decade. This vaccine trial lasted about three months.
22. August 2021 at 12:27
I feel bad saying this, but I really do hope Jesse Jackson and his wife die. That guy is a race baiting idiot, who really needs to depart this world as quickly as possible. And besides, it’s two more bullets we can save for the inevitable civil war against the commies.
I’ve never seen such propaganda in America. 24/7 fear mongering, attempting to force the vaccine down people’s throats without once giving air time to the scientists who disagree.
Maybe this will finally change the minds of some radicals.
22. August 2021 at 12:28
Travis, You said:
“Scott, it might be loyalty to the person, but then why was Trump himself getting booed?”
They weren’t booing Trump, they were booing vaccines. It’s like when a losing candidate like John McCain says something good about a winning candidate like Obama in a concession speech. The crowd booed the praise of Obama not because they were booing McCain, rather because they were booing Obama.
22. August 2021 at 12:30
I think it is entirely reasonable to have preferred an older technology like J&J or AstraZeneca (or in some way Novavax) over the mRNA vaccines.
22. August 2021 at 12:45
@henry
You wrote, “the hard data shows that the vaccine reduces t-cells.” I think you’re confusing HIV with coronavirus vaccines.
22. August 2021 at 15:20
Travis is onto something. The populist GOP defines itself in opposition to the woke educated class. So, they originally took to Trump because he said lots of anti-woke things. Then, the more anti-Trump the educated class became, the more the GOP populists demanded loyalty to Trump as a sign of aversion to the educated class. (Being both anti-Trump and anti-Woke is not something that registers with those engaged in culture war.) Now, the educated class is strongly pro-vax and, irresistibly but actually unhelpfully, couches their pro-vax rhetoric in anti-populist animus. So, it doesn’t matter to the GOP populists that Trump is pro-vax. (Pro-vax Trump supporters have even referred to the vaccines as “the Trump vaccines”.) The GOP populists are anti-vax, even to their own detriment, because the educated class is pro-vax. Antipathy can make people “cut off their own nose to spite their face”.
In a parallel universe, where The Woke emphasizes more the inequities of Americans getting access to vaccines ahead of poor countries, then the populist GOP might be strongly pro-vax, refusing to allow any doses to be sent abroad before every single American is vaccinated. Instead of complaining about Biden letting in unvaccinated refugees, they would complain about taxpayers paying to vaccinate illegal immigrants. Of course, that universe would have its own problems…
22. August 2021 at 17:57
” One real world study, conducted by Dr. Zelenko shows an 84% decrease in hospitalizations by taking Zinc, hydroxychloroquine, and azithromycin. Why wasn’t that approved? Does it have something to do with a law that states pharmaceutical companies are prohibited from receiving FDA approval for new products if a sufficient product already exists?”
Because it was not a real study. He left out pts that would have weakened what he did, it was not randomized in any way and didnt have controls. BUT, we all read what he wrote anyway even if we knew it did not qualify as science because we were desperate. Every academic institution with which I am in contact (mostly Philly and NYC but also critical care departments at a few other places throughout the midwest and south) tried using that combination because we were desperate. It didnt work. I wish it had. Would have been a lot less work. A lot less talking to bereaved families, but it didnt. We saw that it didnt work and then in the large follow up studies it was shown to not work.
To be clear, we still order it if requested. There is no law that stops us. No FDA rule. Some people still obsess over it so rather than fight with people we give it to them, and then also do the stuff that works.
“The GOP populists are anti-vax, even to their own detriment, because the educated class is pro-vax. Antipathy can make people “cut off their own nose to spite their face”.”
There is no denying that some people on the left have denigrated people on the right for refusing the vaccine. I agree that does not help. However, there are even more people on the left, people in the medical field and even some people on the right who are not making fun of those on the right and are trying to find ways to convince them to get vaccinated. A lot of bandwidth has been invested in trying to convince people but so far with just a bit of success.
“As we have stated 1000 times to Sumner, if you want to rush into taking the vaccine – go ahead. But the rest of us want a bit more data before we make that decision.
Most trials last a decade. This vaccine trial lasted about three months.”
Most trials do not last a decade. Where do you people get these ideas? (It used to be the norm was 10 years total development with half of that in trials and half drug design.) Anyway, at this point this is one of the most tested vaccines ever in the history of the world at 4.9 billion doses.
Steve
Steve
22. August 2021 at 19:20
Everyone, Don’t feel a need to respond to the trolls.
BC, You said:
“So, they originally took to Trump because he said lots of anti-woke things.”
As my next post shows, Trump is struggling to keep up with his fans. In 2016 he repudiates David Duke, and this week he lavishes praise on Marjorie Taylor Greene. He has to keep shifting right to hold on to his tribe. How long before Trump declares the vaccines to be a Jewish conspiracy?
23. August 2021 at 07:39
@ssumner:
It seems you’re down to one true troll to ignore (rinat/jayne/henry/etc are one person/bot)
Todd K might qualify too.
23. August 2021 at 08:39
“Todd K might qualify too.”
You mean the guy who leads off the comment thread pointing out to the rest of us that he’s incapable of recognizing when Sumner is tossing in a joke?
No!
23. August 2021 at 09:05
“I find this concentration of anti-vax sentiment in the GOP to be rather odd.”
I’ve been wondering if the prevalence of these oddball RWers who first scoff at Covid or the vaccines and then die from Covid doesn’t have, to at least some extent, a root in the particular way the media has covered it.
I think it’s widely recognized that vaccine hesitancy clearly declines with age, as indicated by the high rates of vaccination in older cohorts. Just as there are no atheists in foxholes, there are no vaccine cranks in their 70’s.
But then it seems to me that a lot of these scoff-and-die cases are people in their 40’s or 50’s or 60’s who could well afford to lose a few pounds.
There’s obviously some publicity of not just the “age” connection with Covid deaths but also the “underlying conditions” thing, but I don’t there’s been much emphasis on simply being overweight as a risk factor.
And a lot of Americans are very overweight, have high blood pressure, etc.
Here’s one link:
https://www.studyfinds.org/pre-existing-conditions-covid-19/
“Their model revealed that obesity plays a role in 30 percent of these coronavirus hospitalizations. Twenty-six percent are due to hypertension, 21 percent from diabetes, and 12 percent from heart failure. When combining all four conditions, the model suggests that nearly two in three (64%) U.S. COVID hospitalizations are preventable.”
Anyway, I’ve been wondering if maybe the media hasn’t been a little shy of publicizing a connection between Covid and being overweight, because of the whole “celebrating fatness” thing we’re all supposed to believe in (even if nobody actually does).
This is just a thought – it could be totally wrong, of course. Maybe in fact people as a whole think the connection is greater than it is, as is often the case in other contexts.
But I’ve been wondering what some of these Covid-scoffers are thinking. I’m reasonably fit for my age, I think, but could certainly stand to lose some weight (see my pseudonym) and scoffing at Covid seems borderline insane for anyone remotely in my position, regarding overall health. Some of these people have to be simply unaware….
23. August 2021 at 11:25
Republicans are fairly use to having the media make up things about them. Its always bee that way.
Theirs an anti-vaxx part of the party, but there’s also the Boston Mayor you link elsewhere. Its fairly bipartisan but the GOP gets hit harder in the media
23. August 2021 at 12:11
anon:
““Todd K might qualify too.”
You mean the guy who leads off the comment thread pointing out to the rest of us that he’s incapable of recognizing when Sumner is tossing in a joke?
No!
===========
For over a year, those on the left and uninformed about the pandemic like Scott, have insisted Trump advised people should drink bleach.
It’s incredibly dumb but Scott can’t resist repeating it within a joke.
25. August 2021 at 14:30
Sean, You said:
“Its fairly bipartisan”
Not really
27. August 2021 at 07:29
This is an impressive display of motivated reasoning. Disagreement with Trump about vaccines obviously shows the limits of Trump’s cult of personality. Saying that (or saying ‘Trump is right about something’) I suppose is not as fun as twisting oneself into a knot to somehow characterize vocal disagreement with Trump over something Trump was right about as an indictment of subservience to Trump’s cult of personality.
27. August 2021 at 09:07
Mark, You said:
“Disagreement with Trump about vaccines obviously shows the limits of Trump’s cult of personality.”
I guess you aren’t paying attention to what I say. The cult of personality is loyalty to Trump, not loyalty to Trumpian positions on the issues.
If Trumpistas were loyal to Trump’s ideas, they would have elected Jeff Sessions to the Senate.
And in this case there’s really no policy difference (AFAIK). Both Trump and his supporters believe vaccines should be a matter of free choice. Do you hear Trump saying that we should force soldiers and cops and firemen to get vaccinated?