Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies before the House Select subcommittee on the Coronavirus crisis on Capitol Hill in Washington, USA, April 15, 2021.
Amr Alfiky | Reuters
White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci said Monday it was “disturbing” that some Americans would not take a Covid-19 vaccine for political reasons.
Fauci said those who refuse to be vaccinated against the virus are the same ones who say the U.S. government is “infringing on our freedoms” by asking Americans to wear masks and impose other pandemic security measures. He said the ‘easiest’ way to get out of the pandemic is to get a vaccine.
“It’s almost paradoxical that they do not want to be vaccinated,” Fauci said in an interview with CBS This Morning. “So this is the thing we have to work on. We can not be pejorative for them. We must try to convince them why it is so important to get where they want to be and where I want to be and where all public officials are. wanting to be health is to be vaccinated. ‘
Fauci’s remarks come as President Joe Biden’s deadline for states to extend their vaccine admission requirements. Biden has asked states to open appointments for all U.S. adults by Monday.
Even with the opening of the vaccination of drugs, polls suggest that a significant portion of Americans will refuse to take the shots, possibly the country’s recovery from the pandemic that killed in just over 56,7233 Americans, can stop.
About 28% of Republicans said they would ‘definitely not’ get a Covid-19, and 18% said they ‘would wait and see’ before getting a chance, according to a poll by the -profit Kaiser Family Foundation announced in late February.
Anthony D. Dell’Aera, assistant professor of political science at Worcester State University, said in a recent interview with CNBC that these Republicans, many of them supporters of former President Donald Trump, are often distrustful of the government and therefore likely to refuse the vaccines.
He said researchers were seeing similar vaccine resistance among Republicans during the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic.
“Republicans, and specifically Trump supporters, are most likely to have less confidence in the government and push the vaccination,” he said, adding that vaccine resistance “goes beyond” Trump. Trump simply “harnessed this mistrust of the government and I think Trump has helped get this prospect more public,” he added.
Fauci said the U.S. has deployed thousands of clergy, athletes and other prominent members of local communities to persuade people to be vaccinated.
“There’s really going to be a full court press to get people [vaccinated,] no matter who they are, ‘he said.