Lots of discussion about Tucker Carlson or Laura Ing. or other Fox News anchors. I have a slightly different view. I don’t think this is coming from any of them. This is an executive decision by Fox News and News Corps (have you seen WSJ Opinion lately?) to go full on antiscience
We have to understand better why? Is it as simple as a dog whistle to keep the 30 million together? Many identifying now as White Nationalists based on the broadside attack against me last wk. Or to fend off Newsmax or OAN? Or because of Putin Russian support? We just don’t know
But the public health consequences are just devastating. Have you seen the weekend vaccination numbers? Almost half in deep red states compared to blue blueish states. As a nation we can’t vaccinate our way out of this mess unless we can stop the antiscience aggression
As scientists, talking about red states or blue states is very uncomfortable. I hate it and find myself in a scary and dark place. And now under unrelenting attacks from far right extremists. But if we’re serious about saving American 🇺🇸 lives we have no choice but to call out.
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Many thanks @AlisynCamerota @VictorBlackwell for hosting me following @POTUS remarks important to optimize access for those who want to get vaccinated. I was enthusiastic about his comments, but also there were a few elements missing, here they are:
1. The conservative lobby and four polls now showing that 40-50% of Republicans won’t get vaccinated. We must expand our outreach to conservative groups. Remember it’s not 70% of adults we must reach, it’s 70% of total population, and that means almost all adults
2. We’ll need to vaccinate Canada 🇨🇦 and northern Mexico 🇲🇽 to also halt virus transmission in the US. This means more than sending a few million AZOx doses
2/4 globally US needs to shape a more coherent foreign policy and vaccine diplomacy framework, balancing the needs to support COVAX, India 🇮🇳 and the need to help vaccinate Canada 🇨🇦 and Mexico 🇲🇽 to slow virus transmission across North America, also our @TexasChildrens vaccine
3/4 In the US I’m concerned about a widening disparity across different states. The blue or blueish states in New England, NY, CA, NM now with 50% vaccine coverage, but deep red states GA AL TN LA ID WY under 35% we need greater outreach to conservative groups
Wow, right out of the antivaccine playbook, except more nuanced fine tuned. Diabolical: Fox News has recruited clever writers, with science backgrounds, to press their political agenda, discredit scientists, promote doubt and instability. The Murdoch’s pay better wages than Putin
So here’s the actual deal: as we worked to discredit fake antivaccine links to autism and with some success with my Rachel book, the antivaccine lobby needed a new thing. So they went after the HPV vaccine and made the same fake assertions about its links to reproductive health
They said HPV vaccine causes infertility and miscarriages and now copy paste that onto COVID19 vaccines. Remember what’s happening. Antivax forces are getting ready to draw a line in the sand against any approvals for adolescents 12-15 years old
So I agree. We’re not looking out for our Canada 🇨🇦 brothers and sisters. I’m actually presenting tomorrow on this to an influential group. Vaccine metrics in Canada are awful. Canada has always been there for us through hard times and good, we must reciprocate.
It’s actually fucking ridiculous. The @POTUS should be up there with @CanadianPM@JustinTrudeau together announcing that all Canadian provinces will be afforded the same vaccine protection as US states. The Canadian people would never forget it and it’s in our own self interests
Honestly, we should do the same for Mexico and Central America, what’s happened to our humanity?
No Ms. Wheeler, you are mistaken as was Joe. He was not informed about the shifting nature of the pandemic, how the variants are landing young adults in hospitals and ICUs. Also uninformed about high rates of long-haul COVID in young adults, many debilitated as a result.