That was not just idiotic, it was dangerous, because you have a position of leadership. MICHAEL STEELE, FORMER RNC CHAIR: Well, we are in a space where we are making it harder on ourselves, at least some in our communities are doing that because of their abject lack of concern for their family members, their neighbors, they listen to members like that congressman, and while you have to be respectful, I don`t. Your thoughts there, Michael, about us trying to not make it any harder than it has to be and a member of Congress saying you can find things on the internet? Kavita Patel, a former Obama White House health policy adviser now with Brookings, and Michael Steele, former RNC chair and the lieutenant governor of Maryland. Vaccines work, seatbelts work, and please, as we start a new week, let me just say it like this, can we try not to make this any harder than it already is?Īnd with that we turn to our experts.
The government is on the side of protecting the lives of the people it serves. But that doesn`t mean we should all pretend that there is some side to be taken here.
PAMELA BROWN RITA GLAVIN FREE
We can note it is true people have choices in a free society. They can decide to wear a seat belt or not. That`s kind of the whole job here, and so people can decide to get vaccinated or not. We`re not here telling you exactly what to do but we are telling you the facts about the choices you make. Now, it`s still a free society, so as you have heard me say, whether some people like it or not, people will literally still decide for themselves whether to get vaccinated. I`m sorry, but they do have to do more than say you can find anything on the internet. The government`s first obligation, I mean, literally first above all else, is to protect the people, so officials who take an oath have an actual obligation here. The science and the facts show that vaccines protect you from dying or severe illnesses that are largely caused by COVID, just like seatbelts protect you from any of the harms of car accidents. Let`s be clear because this is part of the job that we do around here, with no disrespect or ill-will to the congressman, what he said, those words, what you just saw, what he`s saying to his own constituents, that was dumb and it was misleading. Take a Republican congressman claiming that any public health answer about vaccines would be somehow taking sides. Now that`s not something most people want to own in politics, and so some of the talking points are just getting downright stale. It`s very hard to move on, though, when this many people are in the ICU or dying or also the people facing the economic costs of more COVID-driven problems at work and the markets.Ī world where we could be going deep into 2022 with none of this really fully changing. But many Republicans have boxed themselves in, apparently assuming that America was going to move on in 2021, especially as we go into the fall with somehow just put some of this behind them. And the science shows that higher vaccination rates are the only major way out of this. Texas Governor Abbott meanwhile is still blocking mask mandates to the local level even as they are facing very clear warnings of dire risks and shortages of ICU beds.Īll of this is the reality of a resurgent COVID. A federal judge blocking his attempt to say there could be no vaccine passports whatsoever, while parents are suing DeSantis over banning mask mandates at schools. MAGA Governor Ron DeSantis facing setbacks in the courts. Republican leaders are now under fire often by their own constituents including some independents and Republicans for banning safety precautions that work, indeed that work in other places, because they are the places that try them.įlorida breaking its own record for new infections and hospitalizations. 72 percent of the United States now in counties with high transmission rates, and the Delta variant is seemingly everywhere. We`re at February levels from back before the vaccine was available to everyone and everywhere. now averaging more than 100,000 new COVID infections a day. And there`s a growing backlash to people who are playing politics, and it`s largely Republican governors and others who have stuck by policies that are proven to fail and that are literally costing lives. The reality of it is about human lives, not any so-called politics.
These are real people and the people who knew them as we`ve seen in some of the stories we`ve done for you are sometimes their family members speaking out, here we have a pastor speaking out. MELBER: This is the real part of the story.
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