29
OPINION, INTERVIEWS & FEATURES
It was during Biden’s first few months, when the United States started vaccine roll-outs, that many people noticed a worrying detail: the states most reluctant to be vaccinated had all voted Republican, while the states which provided the most vaccine centres had all voted Democrat. In addition, the states with the highest numbers of ‘vaccine doubters’ had voted Republican. Perhaps more frighteningly, when a weary-looking Trump gave a post-election-loss rally in which he encouraged his supporters to be Covid- aware and get vaccinated, he was booed relentlessly by a sea of red caps and ‘Blue Lives Matter’ flags. So why has an issue on health become such a deeply ingrained topic in American political discourse? Vaccination hasn’t just become an issue as a result of Covid. As was noted recently in The New York Times , the roots of US vaccine mandates ‘pre-date both the US and vaccines. The colonies sought to prevent disease outbreaks by quarantining ships from Europe.’ At the turn of the 20th century, President William McKinley urged all Americans to have the smallpox vaccine. Michael
of increasingly vitriolic ‘news’ and views; paranoia and mistrust for any authority not backed by Trump has led many Republican voters to simply reject the vaccine as a means of Democrat control. In response, Democrats have become increasingly outraged and impatient with ‘vaccine doubters’, to the point that demonstrating groups for both sides have often met in dangerously provocative clashes. Such clashes increase the suspicions of both Democrats and Republicans with regard to their opposite political numbers, which only serves to pull people even further apart. Can these conflicts be resolved? Will Biden’s wish for American unity come to fruition, putting in place the means for the vaccination issue to be resolved? At the time of writing this article, 65.9% of US citizens are fully vaccinated. Biden is therefore late on his pledge for 70% of Americans to be fully vaccinated. But there is a greater wish for vaccination, especially in Republican states, now that it has become increasingly apparent that vaccination can lift Americans out of their long Covid nightmare. The Independent recently reported that more
An American issue which has lasted for over one 100 years is unlikely to be resolved any time soon “
Willrich, a professor of history at Brandeis University, writes: ‘News articles and health board reports describe crowds of parents marching to schoolhouses to demand that their unvaccinated children be allowed in.’ The New York Times notes that throughout McKinley’s presidency, ‘Anti-vaccination groups spread propaganda about terrible side-effects and corrupt doctors. State officials tried to ban mandates, and people made fake vaccination certificates to evade inoculation rules already in place.’ These images explored by historians and journalists are hauntingly similar to those seen throughout America today. But why are Americans so divided about this issue? And why is it almost entirely bound up with political affiliation? Vaccine mandates may be anathema to Jim Jordan, Republican Representative for Ohio, who recently tweeted that they are ‘un-American’, but the anger and misinformation that come with Anti Vax rhetoric take the debate to a whole new (disturbing) level. The Republican party under Trump seemed to encourage its supporters to question what was being ‘fed’ to them by ‘fake news sites’. Discussion was reduced to a narrowing echo chamber
than half of Republican politicians have encouraged vaccination and are publicising the benefits of vaccination to their voters. However, Republican senators spent much of 2021 blocking Biden’s attempts at a nationwide mandatory vaccination programme, and, unfortunately, the 34.1% of Americans not yet fully vaccinated are still largely to be found in Republican voting states. Ultimately, while an American issue which has lasted for over one 100 years is unlikely to be resolved any time soon, Biden’s administration might have turned a sizeable group of Anti vaxxers or ‘vaccine doubters’ away from the views they once held. It is difficult to tell. What was a divisive topic back in the early years of the 20th century is still divisive now. But maybe, just maybe, we are closer to the ‘good science’ Biden vowed to bring: closer to healing the old wounds of vaccine fears and misinformation.
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker