Donald Trump, the very stable genius whose uncle taught at MIT, single-handedly whipped up the vaccines in the White House kitchen to save all the Real Americans and this is the thanks he gets:
Vaccine-hesitant Americans overwhelmingly reject the reported risks of the coronavirus delta variant, posing questions for the nation’s pandemic recovery on a Fourth of July the Biden administration has marked as a turning point in the nation’s long public health ordeal.
Three in 10 adults in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll say they have not gotten a coronavirus vaccine and definitely or probably will not get one. In this group, a broad 73% say U.S. officials are exaggerating the risk of the delta variant — and 79% think they have little or no risk of getting sick from the coronavirus.
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President Joe Biden, health officials and others have described the variant as more contagious than other strains, and as such a substantial risk to unvaccinated people. It now accounts for more than a quarter of new cases in the country.
But the government’s plan to address it through vaccinations looks to have hit a wall. Just 60% in this survey, produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates, report having received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine. While that’s below official estimates (66.8%, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), it confirms the failure to meet Biden’s target of having 70% with at least one dose by July 4. And among those not vaccinated, a growing share — 74%, up from 55% in April — say they probably or definitely won’t get a shot.
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Partisan divisions are sharp, underscoring the politicization of the pandemic: Overall just 45% think the government is accurately describing the risk of the delta variant; 35% say it’s exaggerating it, with 18% unsure. Several groups are especially likely to say it’s being exaggerated, including Republicans (57%), conservatives (55%), evangelical white Protestants (49%) and rural residents (47%).
Even as things stand, emergence from the pandemic is far from complete. More than 15 months after it gripped the nation, just 16% of Americans say their community has recovered fully. Nor is the future assured: While 56% think the country has learned lessons that will help it through the next pandemic, a mere 18% are very confident of this.
Having been fully vaccinated, I personally feel safe. And from what I gather, governments around the country as well as the feds have gone to great lengths to make the vaccines accessible to hard to reach people. Hundreds of millions here and around the world have been vaccinated with almost no serious side effects and the efficacy is a modern miracle we never could have dreamed would work so well.
So, it’s hard to feel any empathy for those who choose not to get vaccinated and get sick at this point. And there are a lot of them, especially in places where the Orange Menace is God.
Millions of people around the world are desperate for these vaccines and spoiled Americans won’t get them. And even here in America, there are immunosuppressed people for whom the vaccines aren’t as effective and all kids under 12.
But who cares about them, amirite? Freedooooom!