A Silver Bullet for Trump’s Anti-Vaxxers
Thirty-five million Trump voters say they’re not getting COVID vaccinations. They represent 22% of the American public, which comes to 72 million Americans all told. So how is this going to end? Very slowly, unless we figure out how to change some minds. That’s bad news since the problem is mainly political, not logical.
In the four years after the 2016 election, liberals worked night and day to convince Trump voters to change their minds. The result was 11 million more voted for him in 2020. There’s only one way to convince Trump’s anti-vaxxers. Reality. That’s the proven silver bullet. And it will work — if we get out of the way.
It Works
In prime anti-vaxxer territory, Clark County, WA, vaccination requests jumped 500% in January 2019 over a year earlier. Why? There had been 50 cases of measles, mostly among anti-vaxxers. That’s all it took to spark an extra 2,600 vaccinations.
That’s what will do the job with COVID. But there are a couple of things we can do to help reality sink in. First, some reverse psychology, then some clear stats on anti-vaxxer mortality.
Instead of deploring the anti-vaxxers, we should thank them. I’m serious. Right now, they are doing us a huge favor, and I am personally thankful for that. Millions of them have stepped out of line and let us go first. What’s more important is that a thank-you will automatically worry them instead of firing up their defenses. It’s like telling a kid, I’m so glad you don’t want to try eating fresh spinach, that means there’s more for me. Immediately, they start to worry that they could be missing out. It’s a good first step.
Now, some will say this approach is immoral because the unvaccinated will be spreading the virus to the vaccinated, and we shouldn’t allow that. Time for a reality check. We don’t have the power to force-vaccinate millions, nor should we. And high-pressure mass persuasion doesn’t work either.
Remember, we tried that for four years on the same people and that added 11 million to Trump’s vote. The approach I’m suggesting is an augmented version of the 50 measles cases that changed thousands of minds.
Letting Trump’s base convince themselves, will convert far more. It will save more lives, Republican and Democratic. Shaming them, as we are now, is the dangerous option.
We might even thank Trump’s most loyal followers for saving thousands of Democratic lives by risking their own. That must be done without ridicule, but it will frost them anyway. This sets the stage and makes it easier for reality to break through later.
The second stage of this strategy can wait a bit. We don’t need any help from Trump’s anti-vaxxers until we come close to vaccinating the other 78% of the country. Until then, we can proceed at full speed without them.
The Silver Bullet
But as we approach that point, we must start publishing some hard statistics on COVID mortality rates. These stats will show that anti-vaxxers are dying at a much higher rate than the vaccinated — at about a 20-times higher rate. This is the silver bullet of reality that will do the job. Hospitalizations and deaths will be concentrated in red areas and highly concentrated among the anti-vaxxers. This needs to be clearly documented in a way that even FOX News can check.
Just as happened in Clark County, WA, pro-vaccine voters will be exposed to COVID by their anti-vaxxers. And even the vaccinated are at some risk of catching it. So there will be social pressure on the anti-vaxxers from pro-vaccine Trump supporters. That is the kind of social pressure that works. It comes from their own tribe and it is based on real, personal concerns. And, of course, the anti-vaxxers will also be strongly motivated by a desire for self-preservation.
When they see MAGA folks dying at 20 times the rate of Biden supporters, many will quietly change their minds.
The Long View
This fight is not just about beating COVID. This is about beating back the Republican attack on science and about reducing Trump’s popularity and shaking the faith of his true believers. This is a fight with far-reaching consequences. And no technical argument about the efficacy of vaccines is going to win it.
Sometimes people must learn the hard way, or they won’t learn at all. Let’s not get in the way by preaching at them and calling them stupid. Doing that has made us part of the problem. Hard to admit, but both sides need to do better.
Former anti-vaxxers now seek out measles vaccine after outbreak
PBS/NPR/Marist Poll 47% Trump voters won’t Vaccinate p. 23
NPR story about Trump’s anti-vaxxers
Little Difference In Vaccine Hesitancy Among White And Black Americans
62,984,828 Trump voters in 2016
74,216,154 Trump voters in 2020
34,881,592= 47% of T voters — PBS/NPR/Marist Pol
46.9% = Trump’s share in 2020
22% = Trump’s anti-vaxxer share of all voters = 47% of 46.9%
328 million = US Population
72.3 million in Trump anti-vaxxer camp
Ripped Apart
I didn’t turn down the covid vaccine because I supported Trump. I turned it down because of what I have learned from my naturopath. I also turned it down because I did my own research and made a deicision based on my own research. Part of my research is watching my own close friends going through side effects so bad that it ruined their lives. I then also find out what the side effects of the vaccine are. I am in remission now, but I used to have grand mal seizures. Guess what one of the side effects of the Covid vaccine is?? Grand mal seizures. For someone who has been prone to seizures before, a side effect like grand mal seizures is NOT favorable at all. This vaccine WOULD have me going into seizures again. The only medication out there that works to control my seizures is phenobarbital. Phenobarbital wipes me out so bad that I literally CANNOT function. Sorry, but I am NOT going to put myself in a place where I CANNOT function. I have enough suggestions from my naturopath that I use that boosts my natural immune system, thus preventing me from getting sick.
Might want to check further into Rand Paul’s claim of being a physician. Might want to consider re-evaluating sources of information–try original source reporters, specialist doctors, such as: https://www.verywellhealth.com/explaining-mrna-vaccines-experts-social-media-5092888. & then discuss with your own physician with article in hand and ask for his/her perspective.
It’s a matter of trust. I do not trust the media at all. I do try to go to what I consider unbiased think tanks which to the far left would still be conservative but they tend to give logical answers not emotional ones. Four years of Rachel Maddow’s and MSNBC which plays nonstop in the house I live in, that has swayed the minds of people to the point that their only responses are ridiculous and they cannot even argue or discuss a point without calling people who think different than they do (me they think I am ridiculously extremist, but I am a constitutionalist who studies constantly and they never research a thing but believe Ms. Maddow). Anyhow because of all of this and the fact that I react poorly to flu shots and have severe allergies, I am petrified of the vaccine and don’t know who to trust. I have had Covid and felt before I got it that it would kill me, but it was not even as bad as the other flu I got a few years back. Although have gotten the flu every time I had the flu shot for the most part and I also got small pox type infection with that vaccination. Had the media not been so fear mongering I probably would have a much easier time making a decision about the vaccine but I don’t trust any news outlet to give the truth and the CDC is where I turn but again, who knows who to trust in this country anymore. There are a few who stand up like Rand Paul, a physician, and I would vote for him if he ran because I believe he is honest even though I don’t agree with him 100%, unlike the present administration… Read more »
If you’ve tested positive for COVID I’d say skip the vaccine. I read a lot about this and have seen no scientific claim that a vaccine gives better immunity. For someone much older, I’d say why not get the double protection. And just for the record, I’m as progressive as Maddow and consider her an annoying airhead and a detriment to her own cause. She was so upset by her own misprediction of the Mueller report that she actually took Trump’s position and claimed that it exonerated him (the report says 3 times that it does not do that).