The Vax Of Life, Con't

Deliberate misinformation on COVID by the Republican party continues to cause lethal damage across the country to real people, but it's also causing the Biden administration lots of political damage as well. Like it or not, Joe Biden is President, and when things are bad, people blame the guy in the Oval Office, as Cook Political Report's Amy Walter explains.

For the last couple of weeks, I've been watching focus groups. Two of those groups included independent-leaning voters who don't align themselves strongly with either party. One other group was comprised of so-called Democratic "surge" voters; people who vote infrequently or only in presidential elections. In other words, these are the swing voters that we will be watching closely in the midterm elections.

At this point, however, listening to these voters is helpful not for predicting the outcome of the 2022 election, but for understanding how they are processing the world around them. They are often much less interested in the topics and policies that get chewed over on Twitter or cable TV. Many times they also see those issues very differently than we assume they do.

My main takeaway was the prominence of COVID as their dominant concern. When asked about how they felt about the state of the country, almost all of them replied with a pessimistic comment. And, that negativity was almost universally centered around issues of the virus and the vaccine.

They are "overwhelmed" with the deluge of conflicting information they are getting about the virus from the news media, friends and Facebook.

"First, they tell you to get the shot. Then you get it," said a woman from Chicago. "But people are dying who got the shot. [I'm] scared to get it but you want to get it, because some places want proof."

A man from Columbus, Ohio echoed these concerns about vaccines, saying there's "too much information out there — especially on social media that's what leading to the confusion about whether it's safe or not safe."

"There's so much information out there about COVID it's crazy," said another woman from Florida.

They are frustrated that more than a year later — and with vaccines available to all — we are still battling this virus.

"I'm disappointed," said a woman from Texas, "I thought we'd be in a better place with vaccines. I think we could be in a better spot than we are."

Another woman in this group echoed her concerns: "I wish it had been gone by now. I wish that COVID had been extinguished. I wish that people had listened to science. I wish COVID was over."

A number worried about a fall/winter where we are once again shutting down schools and the economy.

One man from suburban Chicago lamented that he and his family are finally in a good spot financially, and couldn't afford another year like 2020. A woman from Dallas said that as a gig-worker, "another lockdown worries me."

And, they are upset about the polarization over and politicization of vaccines. Many described strained relationships with family members and friends over the issue.

"I don't understand how vaccines got to be such a political issue," said one woman.

 

Again, the deliberate disinformation is being spread across social media and cable TV on purpose with the intent of hurting as many people as possible so that people blame Biden and the Democrats, and meaning Republicans can retake power.  It became a political issue because at every juncture, Republicans and their allies made it a political issue, and they had no problem with thousands of Americans paying a fatal price for GOP political ambitions.

 

It works and continues to work. Americans continue to refuse the vaccine in the name of political tribalism and Trump cultism, and they die for it. God help me, I don't know how to beat people who are willing to slaughter as many thousands as it takes to win. I can only protect myself.