For Republicans, a shot in the arm

The coronavirus does not discriminate based on political affiliation.

Yet public opinion surveys in recent weeks suggest that a large segment of Republicans are hesitant to get the new vaccines against COVID-19 infection. They should overcome their doubts, for their own good and for the nation’s.

The vaccine is a safe and highly efficacious shield for each person, and also for society as a whole. Only when enough people either develop natural immunity or vaccine immunity — say 70% or more — will the pandemic abate. So the larger good rests on individual choices.

Although vaccine hesitancy overall has declined since last fall, it is still worrisome that significant segments of the population tell pollsters they are reluctant. Black and Hispanic Americans disproportionately say they will “wait and see” before getting a shot, stemming in part from a long history of inadequate health care services and discrimination. Another group harboring vaccine doubts are Republican voters. A February survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 28% of Republicans said they would “definitely not” get vaccinated, and another 18% said they would “wait and see” before getting a shot. Now a new survey, the Marist Poll in partnership with NPR and PBS Newshour, taken this month, shows that 49% of Republican men say they will not get vaccinated. Among registered Republicans overall, 41% said they would not and 3% were unsure. These surveys should not be viewed as ironclad — people may change their minds — but as a warning of potential trouble ahead if they do not.

Peter J. Hotez, dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, and author of a new book partially about the rise of the anti-vaccine movement, says the Republican doubts are relatively recent. He notes that historically it was Republicans who launched the National Academy of Sciences (under President Abraham Lincoln), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Dwight D. Eisenhower) and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (George W. Bush). But Hotez says a portion of the GOP latched onto an anti-science agenda in recent years, including the anti-vaccine movement, and it expanded still more into resistance to lockdowns and face masks during the pandemic.

According to the Marist Poll, among those who say they supported President Donald Trump last year, 47% are reluctant to get vaccinated. Trump, who launched Operation Warp Speed to develop the vaccines with unprecedented speed, got the vaccine along with first lady Melania Trump in January without public fanfare. He could do a world of good right now, as Anthony Fauci has suggested, by making a strong public appeal to his followers. He put his signature on U.S. stimulus checks, and in a recent statement he appealed to people not to forget his role in developing the vaccines. So why not endorse an action that costs nothing and potentially saves the whole country?