COVID-19 variant surges while GOP ignores it

What are Republican leaders thinking?

They are promoting an anti-vaccination stance among their constituents. This is remarkable because the originator of the vaccine program was former President Donald Trump.

The unprecedented accomplishment of producing a highly effective vaccine in a matter of months, instead of many years, should be celebrated by Republicans and Democrats alike.

President Joe Biden is promoting the vaccine; he is not denying

Trump’s effort in creating it. Granted, he is not crediting Trump in every push to get more Americans to line up for the jab.

But amazingly, Trump himself is ignoring his greatest accomplishment. Never mind that he and former First Lady, Melania, quietly got the shot early this year.

But Republican lawmakers in Congress?

They are actively throwing shade at the vaccine, engaging in name-calling, such as “Needle Nazis.” They do this even in the face of the COVID-19’s more infectious Delta variant.

When young vaccine disbelievers succumb to this strain and become so ill as to require hospitalization, ventilators or double lung transplants — or die from it — does the Republican leadership think the victims, friends and families will think the medical situation is a hoax?

The Delta variant is more aggressive and potent than the original strain that killed hundreds of thousands of Americans.

Republicans are effectively killing off their voters.

How can the Republican Party be so blind?

It is sowing the seeds of its own demise.

That’s a shame for a once-rational American political party. – Mary Zins,

Miami