Sandara Park: On Politics: The Rising Politicization of Covid Vaccines

April 6, 2021

By Giovanni Russonello

Antonio de Luca/The New York Times

President Biden today called for governors to open coronavirus vaccinations to all adults within the next two weeks, speeding up a target he had previously set for May 1.

But recent polls and political tides, particularly in red states, suggest that if the country is to reach herd immunity, simply making the vaccine available may not be enough. A sizable minority of skeptics remain wary of being vaccinated, polls suggest, with questions about the vaccine's safety lying at the heart of their doubt.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, has said the country shouldn't expect to reach herd immunity — whereby a disease effectively stops traveling freely between infected people — until at least 75 percent of Americans are vaccinated.

Some states and businesses are starting to treat proof of vaccination as a kind of passport. Many cruise ships, for instance, are requiring proof of vaccination for passengers, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York last month announced the creation of Excelsior Pass, a way for state residents to easily show proof of vaccination using a smartphone. Proof of a shot is now required for entry into some large venues under New York's current reopening guidelines.

But the political picture is different elsewhere. Yesterday, Greg Abbott of Texas became the second Republican governor, after Ron DeSantis of Florida, to sign an executive order preventing companies from requiring their employees to be vaccinated.

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Fauci made it clear yesterday that he and the Biden administration were likely to stay out of it. "I doubt that the federal government will be the main mover of a vaccine passport concept," he told the "Politico Dispatch" podcast. "They may be involved in making sure things are done fairly and equitably, but I doubt if the federal government is going to be the leading element of that."

But without a nudge, polls suggest that it could take a while to get the full country vaccinated.

Nearly half of American adults reported that they gotten at least one dose of the vaccine, according to an Axios/Ipsos poll released today, but there is reason to believe that the rise in vaccinations may taper off soon. Among those who had not gotten a shot, people were more likely to say they would wait a year or longer (25 percent) than to say they'd get the vaccine within a few weeks of it being available (19 percent). Thirty-one percent of Republicans said they were not at all likely to get the shot. Partly driving that is deep-seated wariness among white evangelical Christians, a core part of the Republican base, whom polls have shown to be among the most vaccine-averse populations.

A separate poll released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation and The Washington Post revealed that more than one-third of the country has little confidence that the Covid-19 vaccines have been "properly tested for safety and effectiveness." Health care workers tracked evenly with the rest of the population in terms of vaccine skepticism: Thirty-six percent of them were not confident.

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When it comes to confidence, there's no stronger measure than whether you'd give something to your child. Fauci has made clear that herd immunity won't be possible without widespread vaccinations for young people, so any target for the country must include them as well. But nearly half of all parents polled by Axios/Ipsos said they probably wouldn't be first in line to get their children a vaccine when it became available.

Fifty-two percent of respondents with a child under 18 in the home said they would probably take advantage of the vaccine as soon as their kid's age group was eligible, but 48 percent said they wouldn't.

But even as some vaccine skepticism lingers, Americans are reporting convening in far higher numbers. Fifty-five percent of the country said they had been in the company of family or friends in the past week, more than at any point in the past year. Forty-five percent said they had recently gone out to eat.

Thirty-six percent said they hadn't been practicing social distancing at all over the past week.

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Texas' governor rebukes the corporate protest of restrictive G.O.P. voting laws.

By David Montgomery and David Gelles

A battle between state politicians and the large companies that generate jobs and tax revenue shows no signs of slowing, after Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas announced a personal protest against Major League Baseball for its decision to move the All-Star Game out of Atlanta.

Corporate America began flexing its muscle after Georgia recently passed election restrictions, with companies including Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines, which have their headquarters in the state, publicly criticizing the changes. And now politicians are fighting back, at least symbolically.

Abbott, who is pushing similar election legislation in Texas, said on Monday that he was declining an invitation to throw out a ceremonial first pitch for the Texas Rangers, that the state would no longer pursue hosting the All-Star Game, and that he would cease participating in any M.L.B. events.

"It is shameful that America's pastime is not only being influenced by partisan political politics, but also perpetuating false political narratives," the governor, a Republican, said in a letter he sent to the Rangers.

Lawmakers in more than 40 states are pursuing voting laws, with Republicans saying that limiting early voting, absentee balloting and poll watchers are necessary steps to ensure election integrity, and Democrats warning that those changes would make it more difficult for people of color to vote.

It is a head-spinning new landscape for big companies, which are trying to appease Democrats focused on social justice, as well as populist Republicans who are suddenly unafraid to break ties with business. Individuals like Gregg Popovich, the San Antonio Spurs coach who denounced the Texas bills before a game this weekend, are given some leeway to present their personal opinions. But companies are often caught in the middle, facing steep political consequences no matter what they do.

Georgia lawmakers have already voted for new taxes on Delta, and more than 100 other companies have spoken out in defense of voting rights.

"Business leaders are still facing challenges on how to navigate a range of issues, and the elections issue is among the most sensitive," said Rich Lesser, the chief executive of Boston Consulting Group.

Hours after Abbott's announcement, a broad swath of the political leadership throughout Harris County, Texas' largest Democratic stronghold, criticized the state's election proposals and called for broader engagement from the business world to help stop the efforts.

"These bills will go through unless we collectively stand up and say no," said Mayor Sylvester Turner of Houston, a former Democratic legislator.

The mayor applauded M.L.B.'s decision to move the All-Star Game, and assailed Abbott for his public display of disapproval.

"There are a whole lot of people that can throw out that ball," he said.

This piece comes from our live briefing, where you can find more updates on the news in Washington today.

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The Ezra Klein Show: Did the boomers ruin America?

On today's episode, Ezra spoke with the conservative writer Helen Andrews and the liberal journalist Jill Filipovic about why millennials are so mad at their parents' generation.

Filipovic and Andrews, both of whom are millennials (as is Ezra), agree that the boomers left their generation worse off; but they disagree on just about everything else. They discussed the value of generational analysis, the legacy of the sexual revolution, the impact of boomer economic policies, the decline of the nuclear family, the so-called millennial sex recession, the millennial affordability crisis, the impact of pornography, how much the critique of the boomers is really a critique of technological change and much more.

You can listen here, and read the transcript here.

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