- Gov. Asa Hutchinson said skepticism about the vaccine against GOP was rooted in a “natural resistance to government”.
- A poll by Yahoo News / YouGov revealed that 50% of Trump voters said they would never get the vaccine.
- Hutchinson will lift the mask mandate in Arkansas at the end of March.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
GOP Governor Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas said on Sunday that the reluctance of many supporters of former President Donald Trump to receive COVID-19 vaccination shots was rooted in “a natural resistance against the government”, a sentiment he describes has as ‘worrying’.
During an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union”, Hutchinson commented on the conservative nature of his state’s voters when host Dana Bash informed him of the results of a new poll by Yahoo News / YouGov that revealed that a full 50 percent of Trump voters indicated they would “never” get the vaccine.
“I have thought about it a lot and I think it is a natural resistance to the government and skepticism about it,” he said. “But you look at the breadth of support here in Arkansas for President Trump, and you have rural voters, you have minority voters, and their hesitation is worrying, not only here, but across the country as well.”
He added: “I expect that we as a country will get the vaccination rate of 50 percent of the population, but it’s going to be harder to get from 50 percent to 70 percent, and it’s about overcoming the skepticism.”
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While former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter all took part in a recent series of public announcements about the vaccine, Trump did not take part.
Asked whether Trump should be more outspoken about the benefits of the vaccine, which former president and former first lady Melania Trump received shortly before leaving the White House in January, Hutchinson said messages of support from all leaders would be beneficial .
‘Well, I’m glad he did get the vaccine [and] promoted it, “Hutchinson said. I do not know the story why he was not with the other presidents in the PSA. Any message is useful and I think we should have our leaders, we should have sports figures, we should have different representatives of our community, including our political leaders, says [the] vaccine is important. ‘
Despite Hutchinson’s reflection on the severity of the coronavirus, which killed more than 5,500 Arkansans and infected more than 328,000 state residents, according to the latest data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, he said that he plans to lift the mask mandate end of March.
“We’re been a year on this and we know so much more today than a year ago,” he said. “We had to educate people to understand the importance of the mask, and I expect that even though we take away the mask mandate, people will continue to use the mask if you can not give up socially. Common sense is going to replace mandates and I think where we are now. ‘