During his time in the White House, former President Donald Trump admittedly played down the threat of the coronavirus pandemic, pushed unproven treatments for COVID-19, and said he would not be wearing a mask — even as he unveiled guidelines calling for people to don face coverings.
But on Sunday, amid the bomb-throwing and name-calling of his return to the political stage, he devoted a passage of his remarks to the benefits of immunization. “So everybody, go get your shot,” he told an audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
His push generated the grudging appreciation of the Biden White House amid growing recognition that Trump supporters are among the most reluctant to be vaccinated.
Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, said it was crucial for the administration to engage Republican and conservative leaders to help tackle vaccine hesitancy among some communities.
“It can only be positive,” he said of Trump’s words. “But how much impact, how much voice he has now, is a big question. We need to amplify that message,” he said.
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For its part, the White House declined to say whether it would work with more Republican leaders on the issue.
“We certainly welcome the encouragement from anyone to take a vaccine,” press secretary Jen Psaki said when asked about Trump’s comments.
The scale of the problem was on view again on Tuesday with the publication of a poll showing that in Michigan, almost half of Republicans surveyed said they would not get the vaccine once it was available to them. In contrast, 90% of Democrats and 80% of independents said they would get the shot, according to the survey of 600 voters conducted by EPIC-MRA.
The numbers reflect what appears to be a national, partisan divide.
A Civiqs poll published last week found that only 41% of Republicans say they will not get a vaccine if it is offered to them.
Black vax hesitancy makes headlines, but the most reluctant group by far is white Republicans–a much larger group. https://t.co/WPqjSlHNpt pic.twitter.com/ytKlpOSQv4
— Deen Freelon (@dfreelon) March 1, 2021
And red states have higher rates of vaccine refusal than blue states, according to CoVaxxy, a monitoring project run by Indiana University’s Observatory on Social Media.
It follows a string of other studies that revealed partisan responses to the coronavirus, covering everything from the way Democratic voters are more worried about relatives falling ill to the way watching Fox News was related to reduced physical distancing.
Hotez said the trend is rooted in a libertarian health-freedom movement that grew out of Texas in 2015, fueled by the Tea Party movement and Trump’s rise.
“Last year, they began not only campaigning against vaccines but also masking and social distancing,” he said. “People showed their allegiance to the White House and President Trump by defying masks and social distancing.”
Several high-profile Republicans have offered to lead by example. Former Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Marco Rubio publicized their inoculations by admitting cameras. Others, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham, posted photographs on social media.
Yet, it emerged on Monday that Trump had been immunized before leaving the White House — but had chosen not to make the details public.
Dr. Irwin Redlener, a senior research scholar for Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness, said it was an opportunity missed.
“For a year, we have gotten mixed messages, incoherence, dishonesty, incompetence. To find out that he surreptitiously got vaccinated is not a surprise. It would have been very helpful if he had talked about promoting vaccines a long time ago, which he didn’t.”
Instead, scientists including Hotez have taken it upon themselves to get the message to conservative audiences. He has become a frequent guest on the likes of Fox News and Newsmax, most recently refuting claims that COVID-19 vaccines would become mandatory.
“They create this straw man that somehow we are going to create mandates that we are going to hold people down to vaccinate them,” he said.
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But the Biden administration could have done more in engaging Republicans in their efforts, he added.
“It didn’t help when they put together a White House coronavirus task force, and all 13 members were from blue states,” he said.
