Irresponsible Republicans, media talking heads leading a death cult

Although it’s definitely a case of better late than never, some right-wing news personalities are finally doing the right thing and supporting COVID-19 vaccination efforts. If only the Republican Party’s extremist leadership weren’t too scared to follow suit.

Instead, many of the GOP’S top figures refuse to counter lies and disinformation about the vaccination effort even as residents in Republicans’ stronghold states are getting sick and dying at higher-than-average rates amid the outbreak of the delta variant of the disease. This is the stuff of death cults. The leaders would rather sacrifice the well-being of their followers than break from the party’s anti-vaxxer dogma.

Their cowardice is unforgivably irresponsible given that new infections are occurring predominantly among unvaccinated individuals, and that vaccination rates are the lowest in deep-red states. A New York Times analysis this spring showed that the least-vaccinated counties in the nation had a common bond in that they voted for former President Donald Trump.

“There’s a big gap, and it’s growing,” Kaiser Family Foundation vice president Jen Kates told The Times. “We know that more of the unvaccinated are self-identified Republicans, so they are much more at risk of illness, death and continued spread than fully vaccinated people.”

Increasingly, though, even vaccinated Americans are facing ill effects of vaccine hesitancy. There have been many cases of “breakthrough” infections, where people who have had their shots test positive for the disease, and medical centers in some areas are filling up fast with COVID-19 patients. Hospitals in Kansas City, Mo., and elsewhere in the state, a Republican stronghold, began turning away patients Wednesday.

So while some members of the GOP shout that their vaccination status is their own business, it’s really not. If someone’s vaccination status means unnecessarily taking a hospital bed needed by other sick people, then that person is buckling the health system simply out of idiocy. If unvaccinated people are willing to agree not to go to the hospital and burden everyone else with their choice not to get their shots, fine. But if they intend to suck medical resources from others who need them — and have done the responsible thing by getting vaccinated — their crowing about individual rights is offensive.

Note that the Biden administration sent $100 million to deploy health workers to rural and heartland states to battle the delta variant. That’s an appropriate action by the White House, but it’s infuriating that it’s necessary. It’s $100 million of tax dollars being consumed by people who wouldn’t do something as simple as getting a shot.

Yet despite the risk to their own constituents and to the American public at large, the GOP’S cowardly leaders refuse to push back against lies, misinformation and fearmongering on vaccinations.

Take Sen. Roger Marshall, R-kan. Not only is Marshall sowing false information that the vaccine is dangerous to those under 50, he’s fomenting distrust of the immunization effort by blaming the Biden administration for the lagging vaccination rate.

“Every time Jen Psaki opens her mouth or Dr. (Anthony) Fauci opens his mouth, 10,000 more people say I’m never going to take the vaccine,” he blathered.

Senator, we’re not going to draw a statistic out of thin air like you did, but every time you open your mouth and let your putrid lies pour out, you’re undoubtedly prompting many of your constituents to say they’re never going to take the vaccine.

But Marshall and his ilk aren’t the only far-right figures leading their followers down a potentially fatal path.

While some right-wing media figures have changed their tune on vaccines after initially spreading misinformation and feeding conspiracy theories, extremist news organizations have a long way to go to be considered responsible and reliable sources of information on vaccination.

That glaring truth was borne out in a recent study by Media Matters of the overall messaging coming from Fox News on COVID-19.

The organization monitored two weeks of Fox News for mentions of vaccinations and logged 129 segments in which the issue came up. Of those, Media Matters said, 57% included claims downplaying or undermining immunization efforts.

Among the findings:

“Forty-five percent of segments included claims suggesting that the vaccination drive is coercive or that it represents government overreach.”

Tucker Carlson, in one of several instances of spreading anti-vaccination lies in his July 8 show, told viewers they would “wind up on a government list” if they declined to get their shots.

One of the more outrageous examples came from Jeanine Pirro, who claimed on July 12 that the Biden administration’s real purpose in going door to door to promote vaccinations was “about confiscating your gun.”

Media Matters is a liberal-leaning organization, but concerns over Fox News’ anti-vaccination propaganda have crossed over party lines. Utah’s GOP governor, Spencer Cox, spoke out on the issue recently during a radio news conference, saying he blamed right-wing “propaganda” for the state’s low immunization rates.

“We have these talking heads who have gotten the vaccine and are telling other people not to get it. That kind of stuff is dangerous, it’s damaging, and it’s killing people,” Cox said.

Cox was exactly right.

Fox News isn’t the only purveyor of this misinformation, either. It’s also coming from sources like Newsmax, where primetime host Rob Schmitt recently said vaccinations “kind of (go) against nature.”

“Like, I mean, if there is some disease out there — maybe there’s just an ebb and flow to life where something’s supposed to wipe out a certain amount of people, and that’s just kind of the way evolution goes. Vaccines kind of stand in the way of that,” he said.

Again, how grossly irresponsible. The comment prompted Newsmax to speak out, saying it “strongly” supports President Joe Biden’s vaccination efforts as a station but that, darn it, those pesky employees of theirs sometimes say the darndest things.

If Newsmax truly were supportive, it would order its staff to tell the truth and nothing but the truth about the vaccines — that they’re safe and effective — and would treat violations harshly.

That goes, too, for Fox News and other organizations, whose stoking of fears and doubts about immunizations have unquestionably fueled vaccine hesitation and, by turn, helped create the current outbreak of the delta variant.

The tragic truth is that except for a precious few who have turned a corner, the GOP’S extremist leaders keep feeding Americans to the wolves — unvaccinated and vaccinated alike.