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IronLionZion

(45,256 posts)
Tue Jul 6, 2021, 02:55 PM Jul 2021

How political polarization broke America's vaccine campaign

https://www.vox.com/2021/7/6/22554198/political-polarization-vaccine-covid-19-coronavirus

The US’s partisan divides have left much of the country vulnerable to Covid-19 — leading to unnecessary deaths.

The Covid-19 epidemic in the United States risks becoming a tale of “two Americas,” as Anthony Fauci warned in June: a nation where regions with higher vaccination rates are able to beat back the coronavirus, while those with lower vaccination rates continue to see cases and deaths.

At face value, it’s a division between those who are vaccinated and those who are unvaccinated. But, increasingly, it’s also a division between Democrats and Republicans — as vaccination has ended up on one of the biggest dividing lines in the US, political polarization.

Polarization, of course, is not a new force in American life. Growing polarization doesn’t just mean a Congress more starkly dividing between left and right; it means people’s political views now closely hew with views on seemingly unrelated issues, like which movies should win Oscars. But throughout the pandemic, polarization has manifested as stark differences in how Democrats and Republicans each approach Covid-19, from hand-washing to social distancing to masking.

That polarization has now opened political rifts in vaccination rates, with people’s decision to get a shot or not today a better predictor of states’ electoral outcomes than their votes in prior elections. It’s led the US’s vaccination campaign to hit a wall, missing President Joe Biden’s July 4 goal. Meanwhile, the more infectious delta variant is spreading, raising the risk of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths in unvaccinated — and often heavily Republican — areas.

To put it bluntly: Polarization is killing people.


F around and find out, vaccine edition.
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CrispyQ

(36,225 posts)
1. Yet the media blames Biden for not reaching his stated goal.
Tue Jul 6, 2021, 03:02 PM
Jul 2021

The vac is out there for anyone who wants one & is of age. We didn't not make the goal because there weren't enough shots to go around. Frickin' liberal media.

IronLionZion

(45,256 posts)
2. It's more of a regional problem now in the US
Tue Jul 6, 2021, 03:06 PM
Jul 2021

Now the pandemic has more community spread and local outbreaks where lots of unvaccinated people are. So several church groups and summer camps have had outbreaks this year where like-minded people were hanging out together.

Other countries wish they had access to the vaccines that many Americans are choosing to avoid.

Pobeka

(4,999 posts)
4. Reagan, Gingrich's scorched earth politics have brought us here.
Tue Jul 6, 2021, 03:17 PM
Jul 2021

When they realized they couldn't win with facts, lies and polarization were the tools they had to turn to to remain in power.

Media consolidation has only made it worse.

luckone

(21,646 posts)
5. Yes even more than religion in the past . There's been in history religious groups who refuse vacs
Tue Jul 6, 2021, 03:35 PM
Jul 2021

But this new political attachment to vaccines (FDT) has really accelerated the percentage of people refusing it now making it difficult for usa to get rid of covid
Good read
From link
“It didn’t have to be this way. Perceptions about Covid-19 weren’t too divided by political party very early on in the pandemic. And while America’s peers around the world certainly saw political debates and conflicts over Covid-19, they by and large managed to avoid the level of polarization that the US has seen, with other nations working across political lines to take the virus seriously and suppress it.”
——
Again FDT and his repug tailcoat goons

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