Vice President Kamala Harris is fending off criticism that she politicized the coronavirus vaccine and stymied efforts to get shots into arms by questioning whether the public should trust COVID-19 drugs developed during the Trump administration.
Harris hit a nerve when she said during a vice presidential debate last year that she would take a vaccine recommended by doctors and other health practitioners, “but if Donald Trump tells us that we should take it, I’m not taking it.” At the time, Trump had said that “no president has ever pushed” the agency responsible for reviewing the vaccine as he had.
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A majority of people say they have or will get the vaccine when it is available to them, but adoption is patchy among some groups, notably among Republicans, many of whom have said they do not trust the government or health officials.
An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey found 42% of Republicans say they will not get vaccinated.
This week, Meghan McCain, a host of The View, said she believes the number is much higher and blamed a "misstep in messaging" by the Biden administration, pointing, in particular, to remarks by Harris and Dr. Anthony Fauci, whom Biden praised in his first prime-time address last week.
McCain said many people in her life, who she identified as Republicans, are skeptical of the coronavirus vaccine.
“I do trust science. I trust doctors, and quite frankly, I would let them put an iPod Nano between my shoulder blades if it means I can get drunk at Caesar’s Palace again,” McCain said. “However, I want to show a clip to explain why it’s happening with Republicans.”
She then aired a clip of Harris appearing on CNN during the 2020 presidential campaign, expressing concern about a vaccine rolled out ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
“So she’s expressing skepticism about the vaccine under the Trump administration,” McCain said. “A lot of Republicans I know are expressing skepticism about the vaccine under the Biden administration, which is why this has been so dangerous, that this has become so politicized. Both sides are equally responsible for this.”
Nearly half of Trump's supporters in the last election say they will not get vaccinated, along with 49% of Republican men, according to a Marist/NPR/PBS NewsHour poll. Ten percent of Biden supporters and 6% of men who identified as Democrats said the same.
A poll by CBS/YouGov shows hesitancy most pronounced among Republicans aged 45 and under and those who said they don't trust the government or scientists pushing the shot.
This was true of black and Hispanic Americans last fall, but these groups now say they are as likely as white Americans to become vaccinated, according to the survey. CBS/YouGov sampled 2,382 U.S. residents, with a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points.
Sixty percent of those who say they do not plan to get vaccinated also say scientists have been incorrect about the virus "most or all of the time."
McCain said she saw a “real misstep in messaging” from officials, including Fauci, whom she said she does not “100% trust.”
“There have been many opportunities to right this wrong, including President Biden going on TV and giving credit to President Trump for the help with the rollout of this vaccine, which he didn’t do,” she said.
Press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters this week that the White House is working to address the divide.
But while Biden credited Trump for his efforts while receiving his own jab last year, the president, Harris, and top West Wing officials have also blamed Trump for a host of issues.
White House chief of staff Ron Klain told MSNBC in January that the Trump team had flubbed its rollout, while Harris, in an interview with Axios last month, said Trump left "no stockpile" of vaccines upon leaving the White House, leaving partisans to question whether they want a ‘Biden’ vaccine.
"In many ways, we are starting from scratch,” Harris said at the time.
Harris amended her comments about a Trump-endorsed vaccine and was televised getting the shot last year, and has made vaccine advocacy a pillar of her efforts in the new administration, but uptake of the vaccine is still falling along partisan lines.
"These political cues matter and shape how people think about the vaccination and appropriate it as conservative or liberal," said Sarah Kreps, a Cornell University professor and author of a study that investigates how politicians and other factors have influenced public trust in a COVID-19 vaccine.
"What we have found is that Trump cues, like the endorsement of the vaccines, increased support among Republicans. But the counter was also true, in that a Democrat endorsing it would discourage Republicans," Kreps said.
A plan endorsed and associated with one political party "really does have a negative effect on the willingness of the other political party to be willing to vaccinate," she added. "It's a tough needle to thread in that the administration wants to take ownership of this and administer this as efficiently as possible. But if they over-appropriate this in terms of the brand, it really does risk alienating in this hyperpartisan, political climate that we're in."
In his first prime-time address, Biden called on people to stick with his administration's guidance for a while longer, while Harris announced $250 million in funding this month for community organizations to help boost vaccination uptake among vaccine-weary populations.
The White House has taken other steps toward bridging the divide, rounding up four former presidents in advertisements to encourage people to get the shot.
However, there remains one glaring omission: No Trump.
Finding a way to bring the former president on board may turn out to be an essential task as the administration seeks a path back to normalcy.
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Trump's advocacy would be a "game-changer," Fauci told Fox News this week.
