Last Updated on January 26, 2022
Supporters of former President Donald Trump amusingly fail to see there’s a vaccine double standard they refuse to let go of. I can’t figure out their lack of logic on this one.
Have you noticed the vaccine double standard among some Donald Trump supporters? Some Trump supporters still insist COVID-19 is a hoax. They refuse to wear masks and take any mention of a mask mandate as a personal assault on their freedom.
And yet while some of them refuse to consider the vaccine, they take every opportunity to thank Trump for it.
Maybe, in some alternate universe, that kind of thinking, this far into a pandemic, somehow makes sense.
I’m clearly not part of that particular alternate universe.
Go to any news channel’s Facebook page where they’re making mention of President Joe Biden talking about progress on COVID-19 vaccination. Invariably, you’ll find Trump supporters trolling the posts with messages like, “Thank you, President Trump.”
They base their efforts on the Trump Administration’s Operation Warp Speed. Trump touted the program as an unprecedented effort to develop and distribute a vaccine in record time.
And give Trump his due: The vaccine did emerge earlier than many ever expected it would. But no number of researchers who explain that already-existing technology helped speed this vaccine’s development will convince them.
They don’t want to take it themselves, but they still thank their president for its creation.
Vaccine misinformation isn’t new.
The Washington Post reported back in December that some of Trump’s supporters became “forceful proponents of conspiracies about the vaccine on Twitter and Fox.”
Recently, a visitor here tried to spread a little vaccine misinformation of her own through a comment. The link she included was for a website whose domain made it clear that the site is definitely pro-Trump. In her comment, she thanked Trump for speaking the truth about the COVID-19 “hoax.” She then linked an article she offered as proof that one would be “better off” to get COVID-19 than take the vaccine.
The article itself pointed to a report by drug maker Merck on its attempt at making a vaccine. The problem is, the report did not in any way claim you’d be “better off” coming down with the disease. What it explained quite clearly to anyone who actually read it was that data showed Merck’s vaccine did not seem all that effective at preventing it. The report found it could not conclude the vaccine attempt sufficiently prevented infection of COVID-19 among those in the trial.
Any reasonable person would read that and conclude there’s a big difference between a vaccine not being effective and saying you’re better off getting COVID-19.
But to those who promote the vaccine double standard, those little facts only get in the way if you pay attention to them. Ignoring them becomes much easier.
Needless to say, I did not allow the comment to run on my site. She can go on and spread her false information elsewhere; she won’t do it here.
Trump finally pushes COVID-19 vaccination
Infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said last month Trump should urge his supporters to get the vaccine. Fauci’s remarks came after a poll found that 47% of those who supported Trump in the 2020 election said they would choose to skip the vaccine.
But Trump had already done so. He told supporters at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 28 to “go get your shot.” Then, days after Fauci’s comments, Trump repeated that message. In a Fox News interview, he called it, according to The Washington Post, “a safe vaccine” and “something that works.”
It’s time to end the vaccine double standard.
You either have to believe COVID-19 is real or it’s a hoax.
If you believe it’s real, it’s reasonable to credit Trump for working to get the vaccine developed.
If you believe COVID-19 is fake, it makes no sense at all to priase Trump — or anyone else — for creating it. If it was a hoax, there can’t be a need for avaccine, can there?
If you believe the vaccine is a good thing, you should want people to take it. And unless you have some rare condition that makes it unwise for you to take it — and odds are you don’t — you should sign up yourself.
If you believe the vaccine is a bad thing, you shouldn’t take it. But you still shouldn’t thank anyone for developing it.
No matter how you feel about the vaccine, you certainly shouldn’t spread false information about it. You should always worry about how doing so hurts your credibility.
You missed another viewpoint: Trump supporters do not want the vaccine. They want you to take the vaccine.
Many Trump supporters are indeed seemingly waiting for everyone else to take it. But that, I’m afraid, probably won’t get us to “herd immunity.”
No matter his motives for doing so, the former president did incentivize the pharmaceutical companies to develop the vaccines in the fastest way possible. He can take no credit beyond that, except for his direction that the FDA expedite approval procedures. I can commend him on those points, but he fell woefully short in incentivizing the public to avail themselves of the vaccine, as well as in setting up the logistics necessary for the distribution and administration of the drug. I’m glad, as a person who is very nearly seventy years of age and having a comorbidity, that I finally… Read more »
I, as you’d well imagine, got my second injection of the vaccine on Monday. I had the Pfizer shot, and wasn’t going to turn down any offered to me. I feel just fine, too. Same as I did after the first shot. Each day, my system will be a bit more ready to (hopefully) keep this virus at bay, until I’m as fully vaccinated as my system will allow, or as much as the vaccine will allow. Either way, I’m quite happy with it. I wouldn’t be quick to utter anything that could possibly push or be interpreted as complimentary… Read more »