President Biden kick-started a new phase in the fight against COVID-19 Tuesday, but it’s one that could prove tough for his administration.
Biden, who trumpeted the rapid progress in vaccinations up to now, is turning his focus toward those who are reluctant to get shots even when eligible.
The president never used the term “vaccine hesitancy.” Yet, according to independent experts, that phenomenon is now the biggest barrier to the nation’s recovery from a pandemic that has claimed more than 575,000 lives in the United States.
“There is no question that we have passed the tipping point,” said Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown Law School professor who specializes in public health. Gostin said the previous problem of scarcity of vaccines had vastly diminished but “now the vaccines are chasing the people.”
If Biden proves unable to overcome the resistance, he could pay a political price.
The public have given high marks to Biden for his response to the pandemic, which has included a huge ramp-up of vaccine production and distribution and a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill.
There has been some softening in his polling numbers on the topic recently. Still, they remain in firmly positive territory.
An Economist-YouGov poll conducted April 25-27 indicated that 54 percent of adults approve of Biden’s response to COVID-19 while just 34 percent disapprove.
However, the same poll also flashed warning signs, including the degree to which the whole issue of COVID-19 falls victim to polarization.
When the pollsters asked whether people would get a vaccine when one became available to them, 38 percent said they had already been vaccinated and an additional 23 percent said they would get one if they could. But 15 percent said they were not sure, and 25 percent answered with a definitive “no.”
Among Republican voters, more than 1 in 3 — 36 percent — said they would not take the vaccine.
Biden sought to make the case for further vaccination in as nonpartisan a way as he could on Tuesday.
He noted that two of the vaccinations currently in use were approved during former President Trump’s time in the White House and thanked “prominent conservatives” who have advocated for vaccination, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). ...
One question for Biden, however, is whether vaccine-resistant Americans are listening to him.
here are some encouraging signs, such as statistics showing decreasing vaccine hesitancy among African Americans. But that hesitancy has proven more enduring in white rural America, the heartland of conservatism. ...
ALSO SEE: Why Biden's latest vaccine goal is his hardest yet
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