For months, health experts warned that distributing the coronavirus vaccines would be the easier part of the immunization process. The hard part would come later, when millions of people on the fence would need to be convinced to get a vaccine.
Unfortunately, many Democrats ignored this warning when the vaccines were in clinical trials because they were on track to be approved by the “wrong” administration. Vice President Kamala Harris shares a large part of the blame. She openly questioned whether people should trust the vaccine during the 2020 presidential campaign, suggesting that the only reason the Trump administration would roll out the vaccines so quickly was because former President Donald Trump wanted to win reelection.
…
In reality, this was a disingenuous argument at the time. There was no way in which vaccines would be pumped into arms purely on Trump’s say-so. Any vaccine was always going to have to go through significant testing, reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration, and administered by medical professionals. Harris was thus raising doubts merely to score political points. But the damage was done.
…
A recent poll found that as many as 1 in 3 people said they definitely or probably would not get the vaccine, even when it becomes available to the general public later this year. That number is even higher in minority communities: Forty-three percent of black people said they would more than likely reject the vaccine, and 35% of Latinos said the same.
…
We warned Harris back in September that her flirtation with anti-vaccine conspiracy theorizing would have dangerous ramifications moving forward. Well, this is the result: tens of millions of people unwilling to get a vaccine that could allow us to put this pandemic in the past.
Harris thought she could get away with playing politics with public health. Now, the whole country will suffer for it.