As the national vaccination effort to combat the COVID-19 virus expands, challenges remain when it comes to getting some skeptical and downright paranoid Americans to accept the fact that they need to get the vaccine so the country can finally reach herd immunity.
CNN’s Gary Tuchman traveled to Boise City, Oklahoma, and spoke with dozens of residents at a diner in the town, and it quickly became clear that none of them were planning to get the vaccine, Mediaite notes:
“The first man Tuchman interviewed one-on-one said he wouldn’t take the vaccine because ‘I don’t trust the government and I don’t trust Biden.’ But two of the three vaccines, from Pfizer and Moderna, were developed, reviewed, and approved while Trump was still president.
“Two sisters interviewed by Tuchman likewise had no interest. When Tuchman asked why, one sister offered up a new reason: ‘they just started rolling them out.’ Again, the CNN reporter pushed back, alluding to the global effort over the past year to create the vaccines, the sister pivoted to a new, inaccurate claim: ‘Ok, well you claim the flu can be cured, and yet hundreds of thousands of people die from the flu.’ When presented with the fact that the coronavirus is much more transmissible and deadly than the seasonal flu, the woman essentially shut down, saying: ‘Well, we’ll have to agree to disagree.'”
Even though 92 percent of people in the county where Tuchman was interviewing people voted for former President Donald Trump, there was even strong resistance from those who said they supported and voted for the former president, as was evidenced when Tuchman interviewed a group of men sitting at a table in the diner.
“’I’m just — I’m just not I’m not going to take it.” Tuchman asked if Trump making a public plea for people to get vaccinated — as he did on Tuesday night on Fox News — the man still demurred. And before Tuchman could follow up, another man at the table delivered a stunning rationalization for their collective reluctance: ‘Trump’s a liberal New Yorker. Why would we listen to him either?’
“’Did you vote for him?’ Tuchman pressed.
“’He was the best option,’ the man responded.”
Donald Trump is a liberal New Yorker? That’s certainly news and contradicts nearly every single thing Trump said and did during his four years in the White House. That alone tells you that Trump supporters aren’t exactly the sharpest knives in the drawer.
As the pace of vaccinations increase nationwide, residents in one Oklahoma town resist it; “I don’t trust the government and I don’t trust Biden.” @garytuchmanCNN reports. pic.twitter.com/pv1z3sejWN
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) March 18, 2021
Featured Image Via Screenshot